The Long Weekend 2
by TimedWatcher
Summary: AU. Two years after the events of "The Long Weekend", teenagers across America are gaining radical powers, and a select group of super teens in Bahia Metropolis have formed a team: The Weekend Defenders - and just like them, Gordon has come to right wrongs - yet the only wrongs left to right were old scars unmended. (Lemon warning)
1. Chapter 1 - follow you around

He paced back and forth, a drunken looking misstep as he ground the pavement down on a micro level within a micro level, turning on a broken stride as he stared back inside of the establishment - orange lighting filtered out brown like the very coffee they were drinking that he saw everytime he peaked in, before he found himself leaning against it and glancing at a place called Tom's Diner across the street, wondering how they were competing with the new coffee chain.

At least the lights were on - unlike the pizza joint it used to be.

Or maybe that was just the gimmick this week.

It killed him not to have tried the pizza there, and now it was gone. Pizza wasn't hard to come by, especially when his family left the farm - but any nostalgic connection to Bahia Bay would have been welcomed. He just... wished he had more roots here, but his one time weekend friends were probably the only important memories he needed.

Not to mention his weekend... no. No. Lor was his lifetime girlfriend.

He hoped.

What if one of them spotted him? Gordon wished he was cool enough to smoke. Would at least give him an excuse to be hanging around like a goof outside. He felt like someone on Christmas looking through a frosted window into a happy home because they didn't have one.

It was do or die time, and Gordon tried psyching himself up, puffing up his chest and raising his shoulders. He tried to think of an ice breaker. 'I just flew in from Seattle and boy my arms are tired.' Come on. 'I saw you guys having a good time, thought I'd ruin it.'

The door jingled, throwing him from his thoughts. Expecting Lor, he almost jumped out of his shoes. Instead, it was Tino.

His open hand folded. He ceased all activity, standing stiffly with his hands at his front, that he tried desperately to casually drop. "T-Tino. Hey..."

"I thought I saw a ghost. I mean, with your complexion and everything..."

"Funny." There was a long silence after he said it, the sound of a barking dog off somewhere.

"Is this about the video camera? I was meaning to send it back..."

Gordon just shook his head with good humor. "Nah, that debts already paid."

"So..." Tino rocked in place on the door. "You gonna come in or do you gotta be dragged kicking and screaming?"

Gordon grit his teeth, wiping an eyebrow, a long 'uh' exhaling from his voice. "Does anyone in there hate me?" One, being the operative word.

"Why don't you find out?" Tino pushed the door out more before heading back in. Gordon caught it mid swing, stepping behind Tino onto well varnished wood floors that splashed with low level lighting of the hanging lamps above. There were potted plants, a bicycle on the wall, menus were written in chalk, and some of the tables looked like literal logs that were sanded down to the point where there was no chance of getting a splinter off it. It was very... earthy.

But like before, he had only been looking at them. Seeing Tino, Tish and Carver again up close, they were almost new people.

Tish's hair had grown out much longer, but had the exact same fashion sense with the sweaters, sandals and her pants length skirt nearly touched the floor, but she seemed to fit in here.

Carver was the one experiencing zits the most - but they were all zittified to some degree. I mean we were teenagers, what were we gonna do?

Most frustrating was Lor... Lor had been turned away from the window, and still, now, it was like she was avoiding him. Like he was a phantasm that had brushed past her neck, not wanting to check if it was actually there.

As he turned the corner to the opposite end of the table, Gordon had gotten himself worked up over what she might look like. As he pulled on the chair, he found himself still looking at the menu - $3 for a coffee? - He turned on a dime and sat.

Lor hadn't changed an iota. Maybe a bit taller, maybe a bit of a longer neck - but he was almost pulling at his own neck at the way her... chest, had expanded. Tits never seemed like such an important feature on a girl until he saw them on Lor, barely held back by that lavender cotton T with silver piping running above where her breasts were.

He couldn't stop himself from leering her way - although she was why he had been apprehensive to even come in. What if she had moved on? He wasn't sure if he could handle it... it had been two years, but... so what, right? He didn't decide to rip himself from her life...

It hurt to think about. So he thought to bring up a subject that could get them all talking. "So you guys have super powers."

"Who told you!?" The cups jolted, as Tino brought his hand down to the table with a smack. "What I meant to say was - you wouldn't have known if Carver hadn't blabbed to the media in that interview."

Tish sighed. "Ah, a heroic nom de plume. It was a nice thing to have... once."

"What what what? I'm not gonna risk my life for absolutely no credit." Before the others could protest, Carver threw up his hand as if blocking their voices. "Gordo, I have sponsorship deals. SPONSORSHIPS!"

"Big whoop - you get thousands of dollars; I want my privacy."

As they argued, he focused on Lor. Her cheddar blond hair held over the side of her face, as well as her hand, as if she was actively... avoiding... him...

"Did you guys decide to do this because of what happened in New York?" The three of them got super tense after that; it even got a reaction from Lor. Gordon: the conversation killer... but it did stop the arguing. He didn't know why he said it, even though it made sense in his head. So much of what happens these days is in response to it, so he thought the group was just taking part in their own idea of duty to the country.

They all just sat, turning inward for a bit; letting out an uncomfortable cough or joining Lor in not looking at him while sipping their coffee. "It's... partially because of that." Tino saved the day. "I mean, you have powers too, right? That's why you came? You want to join us?"

"Right, my powers. Do any of you have a deck of cards?"

Blank stares. Gordon shrugged a little exasperated. "I wasn't sure what I was expecting." He let out a dead fished chuckle. "I'll just use these sugar packets. Now watch carefully, because the key to this is..." His finger circled one then the other, and as he snapped his fingers

his body levitated

"Oh, that's right, I don't know any magic tricks."

They still golf clapped anyway.

Except for one.

"Thank you. Thank you." Returning back, he went for a fake bow, and Gordon nearly fell out of his seat, head reeling back, as those same sugar packets he had been 'enchanting', had started floating up. Did he...?

The culprit and answer came clear when they ripped mid flight over Tish's drink, as she gave a nonplussed stir. Gordon responded with a disregarding clean exhale through his nose.

"I can't really demonstrate mine safely - but if ask me to pull your finger, it won't be coming back." Tino didn't look really any bigger, but he wasn't willing to test it.

"And I really don't want to show off mine. Why did I have to get super speed? Did the universe know I like shoes and want to punish me for it? I have to replace these suckers every couple'a miles." Carver kept on with his maybe justified whine. "I've been trying to get a science team to develop me some runners that would last me two marathons at least... while still being fashionable."

Gordon was polite. "Any luck?"

"Nah. Something about not being scientifically necessary, or that there's no grant money in it for them."

He didn't want to seem rude in changing the topic, but maybe Tish knew. "Uhm... do we know why we have powers?"

Tino started first. "I heard it was because of that Tokyo nuclear reactor leak, y'know? We live so close to the coast, no wonder." Gordon lived near the coast when it happened, so he nodded like it made sense.

"That doesn't explain people in the mid-west and New York getting powers..." Tish corrected. "Though there are obviously water sources that make it that far..."

Tino changed his theory. "Then it's exactly like Captain Dreadnaught's backstory. We were abducted by aliens at a young age, tested on and given strange new powers as a result - we just don't remember because they mind wiped us."

"That can't be it. I've been gone for two years, and I remember every moment of those seven hundred days." Gordon stared longingly at Lor, over a widening expanse of coffee cups and ivory plates, not even hiding it from the other eyes at the table.

"730 days." Thank you, Tish.

Tino cracked his knuckles. "Welp. I'm pretty tired. Right guys?"

"Right. This was bound to happen..." Tish seemed to whisper something to Lor before flicking back her hair and standing up. They all started picking up their coats, backpacks and any excess stuff they brought - and he felt so confused.

"Good luck." Carver seemed to be offering Gordon his condolences, before making himself scarce.

He swiveled in his chair, opened palm. "Yeah yeah, you drank vats of coffee and now you're all sleepy and gotta go, I'm sure." He raised a finger to the trio that quickly dissipated, not actually meaning anything by it. "Those guys are great." He snorted under his breath as they left. "Really missed you guys."

Lor barely seemed to respond. Giving a generic and quiet 'yeah'. He leaned over, stealing Tish's drink before Gordon relaxed back in his seat - hot drink in hand. If he was gonna be drinking backwash, it was going to be a girl's backwash. He didn't even like coffee, figuring he was too young to enjoy it - but all the cool kids seemed to like it. He stared at his dark reflection.

"Two years huh?" As Lor rested her elbow onto the table, her face askew, her lightly palmed fist pressed into her throat. With her half lidded eyes not anywhere near focused on him, Gordon had to think of something. "You know I never-"

"Why didn't you call?" She interrupted.

Gordon almost seemed to reach for a cap on his head that just wasn't there, as he placed down his drink, trying to drop his casual drinking, faux hipster act - or whatever the hell he was trying to do. He didn't want to pass the buck. He didn't want to lie. He didn't want to make some excuse.

Yet excuses were the only thing he could offer.

"I never thought I'd see you again."

"Gordon, I thought that too... but only because you never kept in touch." He suddenly wished he wasn't drinking coffee, like the light above was just shoved into his face. He swore he wasn't perspiring, but his chest felt soaked and like it was melding with his shirt. There had to be a way to explain without coming off like a jerk, yet each sentence he concocted then offered to the Lor he imagined was like a mole, and she had the mallet. Even the time to think of a response was telling the real Lor something about how phony this might be.

"I move a lot so I..." He sucked in the front of his lips over his teeth, like he had tasted something sour. "Don't keep in contact with the few friends I've made." His voice escalated with each word.

She sat on it for a moment. "'Kay..."

He could have collapsed into his seat. Gordon felt like a free man and nearly decompressed, but knew to hide that tell from Lor.

"What about girlfriends? What's your policy on that?" He nearly jabbed his coffee off its plate. She wasn't being mean, even though it felt like she had every right to be. She just sounded... hurt. "And be honest with me."

"Okay, I'll be honest... one year away from you, I still stupidly believed I'd see you again. I basically fantasized about all the ways we could get together again. Like maybe we moved back to California and you were a quick bus ride away or that I could stay with my uncle to go to school here. The second year? I realised... just like everyone else I've known except my family... I knew I'd never see you again. I want to believe in true love and crap like that, but... is the person I'm supposed to be with really trapped halfway across the country? If not for these powers, I would have just lived my life without you. So when I got them... I thought they were a miracle..." Gordon tried to look frustrated rather than wiping away tears "Now that I'm here... I realise I made a mistake coming back and dredging myself up." That caffeine must have hit him, because he was up and about to beeline out of there in a heart beat.

But she grabbed his hand. "Don't. Don't leave me again." He did as she requested. "I just... wish I understood better."

He sorta laughed in disbelief, as if he hadn't just explained himself. "Lor I love you, but you would drive me fucking crazy." He pulled up a hand to the side of his face, as he rested against it. "And you did." His voice softened and slower. "My mind you know?" Two fingers swirled clockwise around his temple. His eyes upturned to her. "I get to thinking up all sorts of things you could be doing..." His fingers on the table pulled him in, as he put full attention on her, the spotlight for once being on her. "So be honest with me now... did you mess with anybody when I was away? A guy?"

"No."

"A girl?"

"A girl?" She threw the question right back in confusion.

"I thought, maybe you and Tish... y'know..."

Lor sputtered out from behind her hand and coffee cup, not actually laughing, but clearly amused. "Gordon. I have never been interested in my friends like that - but really, seriously, not even Tish."

He wanted it confirmed. He wasn't even trying to be funny. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

They sat quietly for awhile, eye to eye, never breaking except for blinks. The sound of some song on the radio distant and quiet, but there was a long and sad trumpet blowing behind it's words: _You know you've said the long goodbye, can you recognize the theme?_ "I still think about when we left Tino's and went back to my place. The walk there. The way you caressed me, dabbed my wounds and held my hand... and... I think you look nice. As nice as you did back then."

"And you look... bigger."

Gordon reflexively sucked in his stomach, leaning in, trying his best not to cock an eyebrow. "Really?"

"H'well. Yeaaaaah..." She seemed flustered, trailing off.

He held up his arm, giving it a flex. "Warehouse job. Somebodies gotta pay off that video camera, and my allowance sure wasn't gonna cover it." He went from flirty to serious in a second. "And all that stuff with you and the camera... went okay, right?"

"It was a pretty long process... I just hated appearing in court in the first place... it was like a scarier version of school... but... I'm here, I'm happy... because of you."

He nervously laughed. "God, you have no idea how many times I played out this conversation in my head... now I'm here and... and..."

"It's not as bad as you thought?" She asked inquisitively, but obviously knew his answer.

He sat back, content. "Yeah..."

"It's been so long since we've talked... but it's also just been as long since we've..." The whites of her eyes grew wide, half rolling irises to something, dotting her point with an open mouth smirk. He looked to see what it was:

The bathrooms

It was such a 180. They both had probably come to a point where they wanted to cry during the conversation, but now, she... she wanted him. "Are you serious?" She nodded without hesitation. "Hmmm... how should we do this as covertly as possible?"

"Well... I figure that I'll go into the boy's room. No one will think twice about a girl doing it. Then a couple minutes later, you come and join me."

Gordon couldn't find a way to disagree with the plan. "I can't believe we're really doing this again..."

"I know!" She squeaked, before catching her louder than usual voice. "I mean, I know, right?" She brought it down to just them again.

Lor warmed her hands in a rub, before pushing back off the table, and lifting both her legs and planting them down. They exchanged quick final looks of knowing, as her soft hand wiped against his knuckles as she passed him by, though trying her best to not seem suspicious.

He kept his eyes on the world outside, trying to count people, as he took another sip of his coffee - but then he nearly threw it down in disgust. Oh crap, his breath... well, she drank it too, so they'd both have coffee breath. He made a mental check note of things. Did he have everything he needed? He tapped his pocket - good, he had something for her and it was still there and... that was it.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi...

Alright, he was going for it. He followed after Lor, the men's room sign clear.

Stepping in, he wasn't sure what to expect.

Lor practically lunged into him, pressing him into the bathroom wall, bridging their faces into a slobbery, excited kiss. The noise of a click brought him out of it for a second, as he watched her lock it behind him, her little index finger pushing the mechanism into place... he got a bit of his bearings while she did. It was for a single person, and the lighting was nice and even, and for some reason, it was brighter and better lit in here than out in the place where you drank coffee, and there was a general cleanliness he didn't expect.

Then they were right back to kissing. He rested his arms on her hips, the slightest hold on her, as she practically kept searching for maybe a switch on the lower back of his neck to turn him on... but what was actually turning him on was how hurried she was about it, their middles pressed together and it was like she couldn't get enough of him.

He couldn't get enough of her either, her lips soft, her body squishy and his hands wandered below... he squeezed her ass through her jeans, and he knew then... she had grown into the woman he had imagined back then.

For some reason, despite being out in public in a coffee house bathroom, there was something that excited him more than the other times and he knew it when she did it: They were locked up together... him and Lor alone. His heart got a little more fluttery. His breathing was a little faster. Like he was gonna have a sexual panic attack at the thoughts of what he could do to her in there, them alone again. He was her predator, and she was willing prey. Sure, there was a chance he could get caught, but he'd have her fucked six ways from Sunday by then.

Despite what she had just done, Lor pulled back and was a watery eyed calf, like she didn't understand the personality shift she just went through. He whipped out his wallet, a circular ring indented one half that he was proud to show off to Lor. "Two years. Two years I've been saving this very condom for when we got back together."

She bit her finger playfully. "Oh my." Though it looked more like she was about to chew her nail off. "Big scary lion, don't eat this gentle lamb, there must be some other way I can satisfy you..." Both hands crisscrossed as they went to the hem of her shirt, peeling it up, her pale tummy had a nearly nonexistent innie, like she was made in a factory. She was thin... but not too thin, a lot of it going into the right places... she wore a white bra without shoulder straps, with a see through floral patterns on the back and as soon as she undid the clasp, the thing popped off in a swing across her, but quick to catch it, Lor pressed her elbow into her side, her breasts on full display. "Do you like them?" She worked them over, jiggly and cone shaped, she nearly pinched them with her thumbs.

"I've been looking at them all day..." Her nipples were as pink as the gum he chewed. Big and pointy, he actually did want to chew on them. The question of surgical enhancement came to mind. Did she have breast implants? There's no way they'd do it at this age, but... he kinda couldn't believe what she was stacked with - she wasn't like that Pam Anne chick just yet, but it seemed like a role that she could grow into.

Lor running slowly on a beach in a red one piece...

The condom seemed harder to open now.

Lor threw her shirt and bra off onto the handle near the toilet, bouncing with every step. Just as Gordon figured out the packaging with his teeth, it jumped out, and the crusty old condom hit the ground - though disgusted, he picked it up and gave it a once over before tossing it, while spitting out a bit of plastic. Guess they'd have to do it the old fashioned way...

The way they used to do it...

Lor palmed the wall ahead of her, as she took hold of the handle. She reached back, pulling down her jeans, as they crumpled in front of the toilet. Like before, the only really girlish thing about her was underneath; the set of panties she wore - candy pink with white lining and small polka dots scattered all around her ass. She looked back at him.

"You're not gonna try and dunk my head, are you?"

"What? No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Yes."

She gave a confirming 'okay', before going even lower, cinching off her panties as she did. Lor's spine bent in the most optimal of ways she could present herself to him. She gave her ass an awkward wiggle for him that he appreciated, her pale tail was clear in the strong bathroom lighting. Nothing was left a secret between them and he knelt a bit to get a look at her hungry wrinkle.

But like he had suspected when he was groping her: Her ass had gotten a little bigger, and now her entrance wasn't as exposed as before. He held her right cheek spread open and she did likewise for her left, reaching back, and he liked the way her little hand looked trying to hold the appealing fat she had there, her hand still on the shirt that wrapped the handle near the dispenser for support. He gave her another squeeze, the flesh nice as opposed to the feel of her tight jeans roughness.

Her pink hole centered in a v of a white highlight, the rest of her body a little more tanned. She stretched between their hands, but not too far - he'd be doing that real honors on that soon enough. She looked like a virgin again... she had to have been telling the truth earlier.

And just below that, mentally he had been away so long, he had overwritten a slit here, but seeing it again, and her shrunken up size... it didn't bother him in the slightest that it was there. The porcelain must have made her cold... Gordon noticed that Lor had her head looking between her legs to him, she was moistening her lips in anticipation until she noticed him looking her way - they exchanged a furtive glance.

Unlike Lor's body, he was ready for it. His rod poking hard. He reached into his pants and took hold of himself. His spongey head pressed close, and Lor trembled at its touch. Except for a little bit of wetness that he brought, they were both bone dry down there. Still, he tried to guide it in with just his thumb pressing down on himself, which popped back out, but using three fingers, his tip breached her, then he tried to push further into her to no avail - all while Lor wanted to sound like she was into it despite being in obvious pain. "AhoohowoowoohoowowowoowooowmygoD". She was trying to be the obedient girlfriend, whinnying back and forth in a wavering pattern.

He was sure if anyone else but him heard her, she'd break their hearts. The reason he wasn't worried about how she sounded was that they'd done it before, so Lor knew her limits, so if too much was too much, she'd tell him. There was one thing he liked about the way she sounded though: That it was impossible to fake.

He kneaded her ass once again, before taking hold of her bony hips and giving her a grunty stab. With each thrust against her, he just stroked her arched back if any of her particular yelps sounded painful. And no, he wasn't gonna last - her ass suctioning around him - it felt like he was gonna break off inside her.

He spurted deep down her hot hole, he had tried to think about anything else, but all thoughts returned to Lor being his bitch. Only a few more sporadic motions into her left him as he leaned on her lightly, rubbing his hands all over her body, almost thanking her or apologizing. Getting out was much easier, his cock now greased, her hole springing his leak. Gordon then watched himself drip down her thigh, as he listened for her shivers and quakes. He thought he would do something for her, trying to wipe up his mess on her leg, but the consistency grossed him out.

Lor brought her knee up onto the lid, before she rotated into a collapsed, sitting position, looking absolutely wound up, and he heard little droplets hitting water. She picked up some toilet paper, leaning forward, as she slipped it underneath herself.

He looked at his hand. Then looked at a wiping Lor. He drew the fluids in streaks across her face. She looked up at him confused, strands of her hair now stuck to her. "Why'd you do that?"

"Uuuuuhm..." He didn't really have an explanation. "I think... you look better with it?"

She stood up, flushing. "Whatever, Gordon."

"We should probably get dressed and get going."

Her hand hit just below her throat in offense. "Hey, I'm the only one naked here." She was right. Lor washed her face and body before slipping on her stuff. He just washed his hands.

There was no more pretense, they both left the bathroom. He let Lor get ahead of him, the front door jingling as he threw down a dollar bill, buying up a newspaper on their way out.

Strong hands and arms wrapped around his neck as soon as he was outside, as legs leapfrogged up around his middle. He would have collapsed to his knees if it were anybody else, as Lor kissed his face before jumping down from him, inviting him to chase her, as they ran off into the night with screams and shouts, him always reaching for her flailing hand that he just couldn't reach. 

* * *

"This is where we part." Lor seemed to pull back at that, both physically and in her response.

She had been pulling at him for the past half hour, pointing out things. Landmarks and places that meant something to her - or were brand new to him. He hadn't felt her powerful way of guiding since that day after school... and he indulged her. They even passed the beach, and he identified where he lost his digital watch when he "accidentally" pushed Tish into the water.

She just asked him how he "accidentally" did that.

"Where are you gonna be staying?"

"Don't worry about it, okay?" Lor didn't accept that answer. "I'm staying somewhere way ahead of here, and if you keep walking with me, you'll have to backtrack a long ways, and I don't want you to do that." She did the patented girlfriend sway and offered up an 'okay'.

He stood as she walked off, her arms locked to her sides. Lor turned around, looking his way - and he waved. She took a few more paces, then did it again. He just repeated himself. Then he walked for a bit up the path, before he trampled crispy grass, going underneath the shade of a nearby tree, hiding from lamp posts. He watched her disappear behind a building, and once he knew she was totally gone, he sighed, resting head to elbow against the tree.

The thought of even flying more than a mile again today made his eyes even heavier - especially after being... indisposed, with Lor. He had considered a rooftop, but there wasn't much to sleep on, usually, not to mention he had also never fallen and broken his bones before and he wasn't willing to risk it being so far away from home. The park bench was just an easier solution. The wood had give, so it was the most comfortable thing available, easily. He used the sports section as the first layer on the bench to cover up the gaps and make it feel less like he was gonna fall through.

The rest he just did his best to hold over himself, as he tucked a bit of the poking edge of the paper to his chin. The lamp was bright, but that was okay, it acted like a shield. He skimmed through the comics... oh that orange cat... then set it as his pillow.

It wasn't cold, but his goosebumps were still shot up like it was. He tried to shift under his makeshift covers, crinkling the paper over himself as some sections fell nearly silently to the parks pathway - he only wished he had brought a stapler. Or maybe a jacket... but he had to keep reminding himself it wasn't cold, that he was just weak, or that the coffee messed with his body heat or whatever. He huddled with his knees up.

He finally relaxed...

"Gordon?"

Her voice was like a starter pistol as he got up in a rush, even though she wasn't yelling or screaming or anything - just talking like Lor usually did - maybe a little disbelief in her alto, but even in his stupor, he knew getting caught like this wasn't a good thing. With the light blinding him, he at least didn't have to look at her directly. He wiped his eyes as he pretended to yawn to add to the effect. In fact, his hands were all over himself, wiping them on his jeans, sometimes ruffling his hair or wringing the back of his neck.

"Lor... hey... what's up?" His voice scratchy and tired. "I was just..." He looked back to the mess he made. "Reading. I must have fallen asleep..."

"Why aren't you staying at your Uncles?"

Time ate away again as he tried to come up with excuses that made sense in his head fast enough. He felt the world getting smaller, so the truth came out. "He moved. I think he lives in an RV now."

She exhaled in frustration, her face partially fell into her hand, as she covered part of her nose and mouth, turning an angle away from him. "Why didn't you say something earlier? Why do you have to act retarded?"

"I... I didn't want to be a burden."

"Gordon, you've been like... a burden ever since we met."

Maybe she noticed his face quiver, the b word hitting him hard, because she was quick to explain in a softer tone. "Being boyfriend and girlfriend is a burden, but not as like a bad burden. I think about you, you think about me. Right?"

She waited for him. "Yeah."

"And taking care of you is a burden - but so is thinking about you and not being able to touch or talk to you - but now I don't just have to think about you anymore..." His bowed head began to lift, as she met him with a well meaning and reassuring smile. "I have you."


	2. Chapter 2 - the lion and the lamb

Gordon stood sandwiched between bright green hedges that led off into neighbourhood fences; the top of his head nearly grazed a protruding piece that made it into a leafy roof. His eyes focused on a window Lor had pointed out. A sixteen foot ladder wouldn't have been enough. When he saw the light come on, he pushed the gate at his knees forward, now standing on the third cement block with seven more to go. His feet raised for a jump he never exerted into, and instead, lifted.

It felt like falling in reverse, no strings attached, yet he pulled on those strings all the same. It was hard to explain - he didn't have control of gravity... at least he didn't think he did, but he was still scared of it spitting him up. Like when he first tried it near some playground equipment and nearly buried himself head first into gravel.

But when he hit his first bird and survived, he knew there was something truly different about him now.

He took hold of a white and wooden window sill, keeping himself from floating further up, as the corner of his eye peered in. Lor shuffled around her room, throwing clothes into the corner or pushing things underneath her bed. Unless there was a lock, he could have lifted the window with the friction of his palm, but he wanted her to decide on what he should see. She finally looked his way without looking his way - he almost waved above his head to let her know. She crawled into what seemed like a cove where the window sat, opening it. He brought down his elbows and acted like he was barely struggling to hold on. "Do you just let any boy float in through yonder window?"

She looked like she had swallowed something sour while trying to smile at the same time. "Shut up." Lor pulled on his arm, a hint of urgency in it. Gordon obliged by crossing that threshold from the outside world into... Lor's room.

"Nice place." The blue walled room was topped with a white ceiling and pink furnishings - as expected for the average girls room - but Lor wasn't the average girl. Her old place, once filled with a staple of sports memorabilia and rock star posters, they all seemed downplayed, or even missing. One in particular, a golden statue of a girl swinging for the fences, was no longer here - maybe forgotten, intentionally or otherwise.

"Yeah, my foster parents know about the whole thing that went on; so I think they tried to over compensate for it." Her assessment didn't seem far off from the truth. She had her own computer, a TV hooked up to an Xstation. She had a double bed like before, fit for a queen and her king...

He saw a closet door, the door to the rest of the house and an open door next to it. He was a little confused as to where it could lead, the darkness obscuring it, but as he squinted just a little bit, he could see the toilet reflect off a bit of light.

She had her own bathroom...

He realised then everyone he knew in Bahia Bay was well off.

"And you're just gonna... let me live here?" He wasn't sure where to sit, taking residence up on the floor for now with crossed legs. There wasn't a chair except in the desk for her computer.

Her hands hit her hips in a super heroine like pose from the comics he used to read. "Yup!" Lor chastised him a little with a noise, pulling at him, as she invited him to sit next to her on her bed.

As he sunk into the softness of the bed, his curled fingers moved together between his legs. "This is gonna sound stupid..."

"Try me, because I don't think you can. You might even sound like Tish." The way she said it, the way she looked - she meant that vote of confidence for him... but he still read it as sarcastic in that negative space inside of himself.

His hand raised, then fell. Then turned into a fist, before he wiped his lap. He was no longer mad at himself, just disappointed when he said this. "I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you..."

Lor was so flippant about it. "Maybe when we're older - but right now, I have the means to. So why not take advantage of that?"

He stared away from her. His eyes focusing on a nonexistent wading pool of moroseness that seemed to be rising up to his neck. "Then what am I to you? Aren't I just a bad memory?"

"What!? No! No... you're what made me who I am today." Her hands creased and rubbed his shoulders as she pulled him in close for a hug. "You're why I'm so happy..." She squeezed her breasts into his face by accident, but his absolutely dreadful nature changed into a crooked grin - he hooked his arms around her into a bear hug, and slammed her down into the bed, laughing all the way. Her voice hit a high pitch spike as she squeaked out an 'OH - WHAT - GORDON' as her back connected against the softness with him on top.

"Phew. It's a good thing I had these flotation devices to land on." His hands crept up into the material of her shirt.

"Shut up." She pushed his shoulders, and he let himself slide off to her side near the edge of the other side of the bed.

"What?" He half chuckled, unsure if he actually did something wrong. Before he could get his answer, the door knob twisted. Lor kicked and pushed him all at once, and he went flying off; landing on a pile of pillows that had fallen by the wayside.

"Yes Diane, I know. I get it. Just put it on my desk. Yeah, yup. Uh huh. I'll do it later." He was too petrified to hear what was going on on the opposite side of the bed beyond Lor's disregarding agreements, repeating the phrase 'please don't see me, please don't see me' inside his head.

As soon as the door was closed, he could hear Lor's pants bottoms swipe against the ground in a mad scramble, running against her door. He peaked over the side and watched her click the lock on it before turning back to face him. "Jheeeeeesh. That was a close one. We're gonna have to come up with a system for this... maybe a knock?"

He had been getting himself off the floor when she said that, the pillows acting as unstable footing. "How will I know it's you?"

"I got it!" She demonstrated. "I'll knock three times quickly, stop, and then knock again." Her raps against it came rapidly; Lor then dragged her knuckles as she waited and finally banged it.

Lor asked him if he understood, but before he could answer, she nearly leaped at the plate on her desk. "Steak and potatoes! Totally ace!" She had that glint in her eye staring at the plate that he thought was reserved only for him. She changed right before his gaze. "I mean. Uhm. You can have it." She tussled her hair in a curl as she presented him with the food in a single hand, going from excitement to timid in a second.

"Well no, we can share." He motioned for her to come over, and when Gordon actually saw what was on the plate, he kinda regretted saying that.

The food sat between them, their legs crossing one anothers, looking down and then to one another; Gordon practically salivated over it. Black burn marks separated golden brown meat of the t-bone. It looked like something out of a catalog, perfect lighting and everything to make its juices look spectacular.

There was also potatoes in tinfoil.

"You look like you've never seen a steak like that before."

His eyes longed for it, speaking now to the meat rather than Lor. "We probably sold more cows than ever had steak dinners."

"Here." She took the utensils, silver fork and a steak knife with a black handle, and began to cut - the way she did it was awkward and girly, her wrists a little limp, but she still got him the square looking piece of meat. She held her hand underneath the fork, the chance of steak juice falling was high. He wasn't sure why she was doing this, he could have done it himself. Her hand brushed his face as he opened, holding his teeth part way down as she took back the fork. He bit. "Harmph... harmph... aaaaah... I barely have to chew it." His hand moved to cover his mouth, his voice muffled. "Oh, sorry."

"It's okay... I like watching you chew. Is that weird?"

He swallowed the now minced meat. "I... dunno... let's see what you look like when you eat." He gestured for the fork and knife.

* * *

His eyes opened.

For the past few hours, he had been falling in and out of sleep while watching a sleeping Lor, as if checking to make sure she was still here. It had gone from dark, to early morning blue light, to that nice orange glory that caressed them in warmth. The rise and fall of her chest, he felt her shape and heard her breathing, his grip was loose, hanging independently

Lor and him spent the whole night watching TV while cuddled up together. First, there was the hour of music videos - but that was it. An hours worth of music videos. He coulda swore they played more. Then there was this really bad gangster crime film set during Christmas that made no sense, where not only was it a double cross, it was a triple and quadruple cross. It was funny, neither of us liked it, but we couldn't look away; playing chicken with a bad movie, daring the other to be the first one to turn it, before ultimately it was over and they finally got some sleep.

She opened hers.

"What time is it?" She asked it in a cautious manner, as if already knowing. Maybe she did because of how bright her room was.

Her clock was just behind her shoulder on the bedstand. "Eight."

"CRAAAP!" She fought off the blanket before falling out of bed. He got up too, just so he could watch her routine. "Okay okay okay. Crap. Okay. I was thinking about this all night when I was about to fall asleep." She ran into the bathroom, door slammed. He heard several sources of water before she opened it again. "We still have a bunch of these leftover from when my foster mom tried to give them out at Halloween one year - long story short, eeeeeeeeh" One side of Lor's teeth bared - he could only imagine the mess of eggs left over - as she gave it a toss. The plastic rattled inside the cardboard as it bounced off his stomach and landed in his open hand.

A blue toothbrush. Good choice.

Lor stomped over to some clothes she had on the floor between her bed and her desk, as she stripped down the pants she was wearing and threw it haphazardly, then gripped another pair at her ankles, and she almost hit the roof with her jump as she struggled to put on this other pair of jeans. "There's crackers by the bed, but please don't - oh forget it, I don't even follow that rule..."

As for her shirt, she just took a quick sniff of her self and deemed the one she was in okay. "If you need water, I left you a glass." She pointed it out on the desk near a phone, where she was stuffing her backpack with books and work journals.

"Oh and-" She went to him and kissed his face. "I love you. Bye!" The door shut.

Was he still asleep? She was such a blur.

He watched from the window, seeing Lor with her knapsack starting and stopping runs. Maybe skipping. He waved, and kept waving hoping she'd turn around and do the same

But she didn't.

His hand fell, hearing car's taking off from the front of the house as he drooped back to her bed.

Now it was just the eerie quiet of a girl's room.

It was his first day alone. Funny. He flew away to Lor because he couldn't stand being without her, and now it's just like before.

Gordon didn't want to admit it so early already, but he felt trapped. Day time television was horrible - either really lame kids shows that talked down to you or some host variant on talk show after talk show. He almost kept one on because it dealt with men dating transwomen, but it turned into a real freak show and he shut it off in disgust. The other ones were about psychics and teen pregnancies...

Oh and she had an Xstation alright... but all sports games. '99. 2000. 2001. What the hell was even the difference?

Lor had a single DVD and he watched it from front to back, with commentary, without commentary, the one where it would randomly add picture in picture making of video explanations for what was currently going on in the movie...

He liked the movie but it wasn't that damn good.

Maybe Lor and him could go and rent some tapes when she got back...

So Gordon waited.

And waited.

And waited.

His lunchtime consisted of saltines and water. Well, water after he nearly started choking on cracker dust. His salty coughs nearly had him hoark up the food he had just chewed, as he ran with Lor's given cup to the tap in the bathroom. Cold water felt nice going down.

He flopped around her room like a dry fish, still annoyed to say the least - but when he spotted a certain time out of the corner of his eye, he was like a big ol' dog happy to see its owner, launching himself onto her bed and nearly yanking her alarm out of the wall.

Three O'clock.

He knew it was getting to be that time when the actual good cartoons started playing

And that meant: School was gonna be out soon.

So Gordon waited.

And waited.

And waited.

He only kept half his interest on the talking sponge show as he flipped from the door, to the clock and back to the TV. It was half an hour past five and quickly moving to six. Where was she!?

That's when he switched off the cartoons. He watched the door with a seething intent, fists on his knees, ready to rise up to meet her knock.

The first knock, and he didn't even wait for the rest, he was up and had it open.

In a denim blue cap with a red bill turned to the back, she came in carrying a bunch of stuff, perspired and a little dirty. He waited for the door to close before he began. "Where were you!?"

She slowly wagged her finger at nothing in particular, having an 'ah-ha' moment. "I knew I forget to mention something. I have practice after school on some days." She said matter of factly before shrugging. "Sorry." Which didn't sound the least bit sorry. She tossed her sweaty hat and glove near a laundry hamper before taking a relaxing fall onto her bed. Like she had done nothing at all... it wasn't like she was lying... but... but... SHE SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME WHERE SHE'D BE!

He marched over to her exhausted looking position, her sock covered feet overhanging part of the bed, her head staring at a turned off TV, but too tired to turn it on. "Well you should be sorry! I was thinking about you all day, then I had no idea where you were, then I was worried sick... and, and, and - I was so bored!" Partway through, he tried to make it more of a joke rather than an angry whine, realising this wasn't worth complaining about.

"How could I make it up to you?" She said it in more of a way to get him to shut up rather than something from the heart.

He thought about it, because he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted. Then something of his throbbed. "Suck my dick, Lor."

He sunk his knees into her bed, his hips guiding him towards her as he got himself out. She just waited for it without protest, as he moved towards her face, his hand throwing up his shirt. She popped it into her mouth like a sneaky meatball as she began sucking on him like it was no big deal, yet she was tired enough that she couldn't use her neck, so she did more of a rolling head motion with him on her tongue, her eyes closed.

The pleasure of her sucking his dick cleared his angry, steaming mind - it tends to do that. Even after he got his ass beat, Lor sure made him forget for awhile that it even happened. The angel on his shoulder was talking sense - she was in a rush, she forgot. Simple mistake, she really didn't even need to do this - yet she did anyway. "Wow... you just... let me do that?" He retracted himself from her, sitting back on the balls of his heels, as he turned away, pulling up his pants, her spit soaking into his underwear now.

"Don't you want to finish?"

There wasn't much place to turn, so he just sort of locked eyes with the corner. "Uhm... maybe later."

She was so fucking cool.

* * *

"Lor! That's so good..." She was into it now with her second wind, hungry for him even after they ate, eyes from her always looking up at him, never breaking contact. It took every ounce of freewill he had to not force her face down. His knees flexed to the corners of her bed as he watched her lapping up ropes of white that left him, her licks on his purple head like an ice cream about to melt off the cone that she was quick to catch, volleying her tongue back and forth, her hand still partially on his shaft and balls where she had been jerking him. Her tongue pressed down on her bottom lip as she gave a final, smooching, wet streak up and down his length, before eventually letting his once proud tower fall, sensitive to the touch.

The afterglow was short lived, as she wiped her sticky lips while flipping back some hair behind her ears. "Alright, I normally love the way you smell, but I got to call a time out. You reek. Like an onion." Lor sure had a way with being honest.

He kept it light. "That's a helluva thing to say to somebody. Especially after you just had me in your mouth." She was probably right, but he wasn't going to cop to it.

"Come on, get out of your clothes, I'll wash 'em. Then you-" She pointed firmly. "Get in the shower. You'll feel better."

Gordon at least had a good excuse. "Lor, I don't really have any..."

"What? It's not like you're going anywhere or that I'm asking you to streak around the house. It'll be quick, I promise. You're not wearing much anyway." There was an almost begging to her tone. Did he really smell that badly?

"But'ya... but'ya know how to wash clothes right?" He asked while mid strip.

"Come on. I'm a girl, remember?" Gordon shrugged in agreement, and was quicker on taking them off after she said that. He left his underwear till last, as he went into the bathroom and used the door as a barrier, throwing it out to her from a tiny gap he made before he fully closed it and turned on the light.

A standing shower... he had never actually encountered one of these. It was on a slightly raised platform and the frosted glass nearly touched the ceiling in a sort of box. He pulled on the silver handle with care, as if expecting it to jump out and smash into the wall. His feet slapped on the cold hard surface as he pulled it in behind him... it was kinda like having a room within a room.

He looked over all the bottles she had on her shower caddy... body stuff, conditioner... he just needed some shampoo and any would do - though most were near empty. A purple one with a kangaroo on it seemed like the ticket, and it had plenty left. He watched it come out in a goop on his palm before working it into his hair. His foam covered fingers then fiddled with the knobs, cold hitting him like a weak punch, as that turned into warmth. As the water traveled over him, he knew exactly what she meant - like a layer of filth melted away, this was the kind of cleansing he needed.

It felt like his first return to actual civilization since he'd been here - he felt sort of like a caveman, especially after eating that steak - and while he had the giant brow, he thought of Lor in a leopard print cavegirl bikini, the classic two piece from cartoons, and her hair long and wild... or trussed up with a bone through it...

What? Did he want to turn on the cold water?

He dipped his hair into the pouring blast, and there was a part of his face that felt rather sensitive. He ran his hands under the shower, then reached for it. Just above his cheek bone was something that shouldn't have been there - his fingers passed over it a few times before he just opened the shower door and leaned over the side, looking into the mirror.

It was a big, fat, red, pimple - and Lor didn't tell him!

Wait.

... If Lor didn't say anything about that, what else was wrong with him that she wouldn't talk about? What if she only mentioned it to the others at school? What if she only said these things to Tish? What if she said he wasn't any good... you know, in that way... what if she was just putting up with him? That speech about being a burden hit him as he applied the conditioner, mentally filtering out the good parts about it.

She really took it out of him, and he had to sit down - besides, it was the most optimal way to wash this stuff out.

Gordon thought about the relationship and relationships in general. Was he sabotaging it? His spazz out earlier probably didn't help, though Lor's poker face was something else. What was wrong with him? Keep your stupid shit to yourself. A good relationship requires you to always have your best face for her and to always hide the ugly one. Lor has gone through some horrible shit, and he doesn't know about it, he didn't see it and she hasn't told him about it for good reason.

His palms covered his eyes, the water drizzling off him.

He still felt filthy.

Gordon toweled himself off, his hair mostly dry now as he opened the door, and... Lor hadn't gone down to wash his clothes. Instead, she had his shirt over her face. Her hands pressed into it, as if trying to bond it to her nose.

"Lor?"

It flew up like she had slipped on a wet floor and dropped what she was holding. Her elbows dug into the bed. "Uh... you weren't supposed to see that." She got up, huddling his clothes to herself and going to her door, apologizing as she opened and closed it.

He relaxed with the towel wrapped around his middle, staring up to the ceiling that curved into her room, his hair no longer greasy.

Lor... Lor loved him. Not only that, but she was absolutely infatuated with him. She didn't care how he looked, she didn't care about how he smelled... or maybe she did, but at the same time, it was all exciting. Nobody had ever felt this way about him... yeah, Lor loved him back then, but now he could feel it. He could experience it. It was his... and he wouldn't trade it for the world. Maybe he could get fat, and Lor would still love him... well, maybe not that last part, because she was into sports and all.

He stood, naked, his towel off like a thrown cape.

_Who's the sex machine that gets all the ladies?_

_Gord._

_Who's the man of action that saves the day?_

_Gord._

_And she's a complicated woman, but she's the only one who understands him_

As he laid back from his solo dance number, he wondered if she had some used panties - because there had to be something to this clothes smelling thing...


	3. Chapter 3 - sunday matinee

"And you're my goldenrod..." His pen tapped the notepad.

He tore it off and crumpled it.

Gordon leaped off from the bed, wanting to stomp his foot, but couldn't. Wanting to shout, but couldn't. He wanted to punch something, but couldn't. He instead spasmed with erratic energy, landing back onto her bed.

Why couldn't he find the words? He growled in his throat, his vocals straining.

Poems were free...

The knock... he pushed his notepad and failures underneath her bed, inhaling slowly, composing himself, before answering.

The door shut behind her and she showed off a big shopping bag. "Gord! Gord! Gord! I got you something."

She led him to her bed, before pulling out a light brown cotton jacket with a dark brown collar. It reminded him of coffee with milk in it. It had many pockets and all of them were zippered, with one near the interior of the chest - he easily imagined stuffing something cool there, as his mind moved through a myriad of things that could possibly impress Lor, like a pack of smokes.

She stared quietly, not even a peep as he slipped in his arms through the sleeves. "The tag said it was wind and water resistant." His head flipped up to meet her eyes, who seemed hopeful as he looked back down to focus on his jacket. He slid his hands into pockets, and he sunk, the middle puffing out a little, which he tried to wipe away, the material nice to his hand.

It looked like something his dad wore.

"I like it... but... I don't have anything for you." He felt sick to his stomach. He didn't even want to think about the price. "You've given me so much, Lor. I don't know what to say... how'd you know my size?"

"I memorized it from your shirt's tag when I washed it."

He wore it the rest of the day. Everytime she looked his way, he felt light as a feather, but everytime she wasn't, he felt the world crushing him.

* * *

"Ugh. Gonna be a long day. I have soooooo many assignments." Hard cover books and floppy journals landed onto her desk with a near smashing quality, her elbow rested near them, palm under her cheek and chin as she flipped it open and pulled out her pencil and continued off on work from school she didn't get to finish. He tip toed behind her, before peering over her shoulder, her eyes cross referencing back and forth, looking bored as she then wrote down her answers in her book.

Now was his chance. "Hey, uh..." He coughed, making himself known. "Maybe I could help you with your homework."

She paused, maybe to think about his offer. "Uhm, that's okay. Besides, I think they could tell the difference between our handwriting. Why not watch some TV?"

"Oh... alright..." He slunk back to her bed, dejected, her remote across his chest. He turned it on, hit some numbers, but couldn't tell you the first thing about what was on it as he kept his eye on a working Lor. As the TV talked, Lor slipped on her headphones, possibly playing music as well.

Having as much free time as he did, he was always curious about the little things in Lor's room. What was in her drawers? Clothes. What was in her basket? Dirty clothes. What was under her bed? ... Forgotten clothes. Okay, so it really wasn't that interesting, but the one place he hadn't looked... was her closet.

She was still deep into work, but he kept making sure she wasn't going to look. Thankfully, it didn't come crashing down on him as soon as he opened it, but he had found the same ol, same ol after a bit of shuffling: Junk and clothes that meant nothing to him. Would have been nice to find an old 8-bit system...

Gordon wondered why he did anything... but something... jutted out improperly from one of the piles of clothes, and as he pulled off the shirt like a mask to a cartoon villain, it revealed...

A guitar. An acoustic one too. Considering her love of metal, it seemed an odd fit... at least he was sure she was still into that. No dents or scrapes... just average, except, hmmm... masking tape underneath certain chords. Wonder why that was there? They looked about ready to fall off too.

He pulled it out.

"You know how to play guitar?" He asked while carrying it out with both hands.

Lor slipped off an ear cup to the side. "You weren't just looking in my closet were you?"

"Well... you know... I don't have much else to do." What a terrible excuse. That was going at the top of his list of all time worst ones... but... wait... Lor didn't answer. He quickly moved the conversation back to it again. "So you know how to play?"

Her spine froze up like a cat about to be sprayed with water. "Uh... yup. Tish taught me some chords for a talent show. I got second place!" She looked eager at first to tell him about it, but her head fell. "It's... it's nothing."

God she knew how to make him feel bad without actually trying. If she had a talent, she completely discarded it. Not even a mention of it... not that he asked some weird 'what are your talents? beep boop I'm Gordbot 3000' question. "Could you show me?"

She dropped her pencil. "Do I really have to do this now?" A bit of a whine from Lor, but he was the cause.

"I just wanna see... please?" He moved it forward, as if presenting a gift.

Her lips mushed together. "Fine." She relented, taking it, rotating her chair to him as she then cleared her throat.

He took his front row seat on the floor, holding his knees to his chest, looking up to her.

_ "Home... hooooome on the raaaange..."_

_ "Where the deeeeer and the antelope plaaaay"_

He watched silently, not believing she knew the whole song, as a wave of nostalgia crept over him, that he couldn't explain... or maybe he was just an easy acoustic lay.

He clapped.

"You know when Tish first started teaching me how to play... I kept saying cantaloupe." She smiled in hopes Gordon would understand as if it was an easy thing to confuse.

He playfully rolled his eyes. "That's my Lor... hey, you wouldn't happen to know anymore songs would you?"

"I know a couple, but I'm pretty rusty..."

"Maybe after your homework is done... dooo yooou... think you could play some more?" He tried to ease Lor into it.

"Okay!" She seemed pretty excited as she went back to work, her pencil erect, her free finger hit her chin, as she tried to figure out the next problem in her notebook. 

* * *

You'd think a couple more days cooped up like this would have driven him crazy, but actually, he kinda got used to the paces. Lor started bringing up the breakfast she didn't eat, so he got a decent meal; she also brought up old family magazines nobody was reading, some fitness ones, some food ones, basic stuff - but he did like the National Globographics. He had also found the good shows that were played this early and tried to schedule his day around them, though sometimes they'd play at the same time and he'd have to channel flip between them.

And that should be Lor.

He laid back down, magazine in his face. "You were late coming home again." Gordon said casually, knowing it wasn't one of her practice days.

"I was? Yeah, I guess..." He let the magazine flop; he leaned in, an open ear. "I usually only talk to Tish about this, but... I go to a support group..." She almost left it at that.

"Is it about... them?" If it was, he was willing to drop it.

"No... it's one for..." The last part seemed hard to get out. "Trans people. Foster parents think it's 'good' for me." He couldn't have imagined a more insulting eye roll at the mention of them, with the tone to go with it. "I usually just sit and listen to their stories. A lot of them try to date women, which I don't get, and... alright, I'll just say it: They're men in dresses, and they're freakin' gross. Y'know, if I was forced to meet them when I was younger, I wouldn't be the way I am now because I'd think only guys with a strange fetish did it." Lor had gotten so pissed off and animated about it that Gordon was silently chuckling under his breath - it was like getting a comedy act for free - his hands interlocked behind the back of his head as she continued. "Some of them wear these ratty, multicolored wigs and... UUUUGH!" She crawled into bed with him, laying her head backwards on his pelvis, hair like a curtain; her nose tilted up at an angle, as if trying to watch her TV upside down. The sun carved her features. She spoke again, hint of regret in it. "I'm not getting the surgery. Too many horror stories."

He mouthed the word surgery to himself.

"Gordon?" She called to him, and he looked to her, her head had turned his way, eyes half lidded, her lips pouty. "You... like me just the way I am, right?" The way she said it, the question seemed more complicated than that. Maybe she was at a crossroads and needed his vote on things.

He sat up, now looking down at her, his spine curved, his fingers working through her hair, almost petting her like the family cat. "Of course I do." He kissed her nearly spot free forehead. "You're perfect."

He saw her blush a shade of red that you only ever saw in cartoons. 

* * *

"Check it out Gord." Before he could ask, she had pulled up a dark blue tee past her tummy and up to her braless bust; her creamy white skin got even creamier as she womanhandled her breasts, firing them off in a spray across the middle of her chest. "I found out I could do this in the gym shower." She seemed absolutely aloof to the fact that this was turning him on, as she ignorantly played with her nips, squirting them all over herself, a soft and goofy giggle everytime she did it.

"I've got to fuck you." He wrenched his hands around each pant leg before he yanked and pulled at them, as Lor flopped up and down on the bed, helping by unhooking the snap, allowing him easier access before they slipped off like he was pulling off a table cloth with plates still on it and he tossed them to the side.

Her penis flopped, the tip of her penis was leaky as well

With all her waterworks and squishiness, Lor reminded him of a water balloon.

...

Gordon was glad he just thought that.

Lor was all toothy smiles as she gave him her best 'come hither', their bodies meshed, as he crawled up her middle, and he realised his mistake, the feeling of wetness all over his clothes. He wouldn't call what she did gross because it was Lor, but wet clothes were gross, so he tossed them off onto her pile, resuming his place on her, hand on the back of her neck, as Lor parted with hers. He looked down to her twin set of tits, giving her a slither of his tongue, a preview to Lor of things to come.

Either of them seemed sharp enough to cut his tongue, but he still dared to explore them, starting with an opening salvo of flicks of his tongue, then meeting each mountain with a circle of his tongue, getting a taste for the already gathered milk; the taste was sweet, like milk past the due date but it hadn't gone sour just yet. His dry lips popped in each of them as if trying to give her a hickey, but no matter how he did it, suckling or glomming his mouth onto her, he always felt kinda silly; in fact, the idea of sucking anything on Lor felt silly to him.

He was now fully sprung. "It's time..." His voice was breathy and low while sliding off her.

As he fumbled for himself, Lor held up a hand to keep him at bay. "Whoa Captain Hornypants, let's do this right." She then grabbed a bottle of lube nearby, a bottle she must have purchased recently because he had never noticed it while home alone; the cap snapped and she dolloped some onto the point of her finger before reaching down, looking like she was about to finger herself as she swirled her pink hole. "Now you." He held out his hand, catching the goop in his palm, the cold worrying him for a moment as he let it warm a little before rubbing it against himself. "Okay, I'm ready." She gave her slick entrance an inviting tap, before spreading her legs as wide as she could make them, and trying to hold them that way with interlocking wrists.

She was a smorgasbord of pink and pale sexual energy, her bodies version of a pussy wanting to swallow him whole; every blink his way with her long eyelashes and toothless smile made him feel like they were the only people alive. "You know you make waiting so worth it..." His wet head pressed against her welcoming and lubed orifice, both of them biting their lower lips, as he watched himself disappear yet again into this well tread bodily home of his.

Lor let out a sigh of relief, her head falling back into the pillow, her throat at its apex; this was nothing like the coffee house bathroom, not a single sound of pain. Was it a mistake to have fucked her like that without the lube before? Despite his thought, there was no regret in his movements, edging his way into her the same way, still with no complaints from her.

He saw her hand move and Gordon couldn't help but look down, as Lor's penis had grown inflated, she couldn't help herself, but he had weirdly thought she only masturbated with her ass, as the way she did it wasn't like how he did it... she kinda just, pressed her hand right into her hairless pubic mound and wobbled her penis back and forth. He took hold of her, his hand slithering around her thigh, while the other pressed into her stomach. "May I?" He breathed hard, his hand trembling over her hardness while drilling into her.

"Oh, fuck, yes!" Her chin met the top of her chest, as she looked down in sexual, redfaced, disbelief. He could see right inside her mouth of chapped lips and drool, her appendage squirmed like a worm under his grasp, pulsing everytime he made entry/reentry, at first he worked it like joystick, as his thumb couldn't help but squish her sticky foreskin down, working in her precum like a facial, but once he got himself into a good groove, he was able to stroke her off properly. "Cumming... cumming... I'm cumming..." She gasped with embarrassment, looking up to him as if expecting he'd judge her for it. One hand of hers pulled at her sheets, while another went to cover her eyes but eventually gave up on the idea, her fingers sprawled over only half of her face, her ring finger in her lips. Lor's penis didn't so much erupt, as the tip began a gradual weeping, as clear, translucent cum dribbled from her and pooled in her tight belly button.

With her done, he let go of her thing and increased his speed, the bed rocking and creaking as he plowed her ass. He stared down at her intensely, and she responded with an almost cowering look, before he leaned down, stealing a slurpy kiss, his final thrusts came, and he could hear and feel each slap against her with every delivery as he invested his seed into her cute little bum.

He fell, flattened like a pancake, both breathing, though she seemed more out of breath than he was. They were like that for awhile, his body naturally leaving hers before Lor broke the silence. "Pass me your shirt." He did so mindlessly. Lor then wiped up hers and his cum in a whirling rag like motion - his cum, which was currently leaking from her loose ring. He shouted at her. "What? You just screwed my ass, show some respect... and I'll wash it." He could only pretend to be mad from then on while watching her making his shirt a streaky mess... because he loved a naked Lor.

With them both cleaned up, they laid on their sides, holding one another, staring into eachothers eyes. They were connected... in more ways than one. His penis enveloped hers completely, and he swore to god he felt her heart rate jump when they docked like this. "Heh heh, you like it when mine feels bigger than yours, don't you?"

She tossed, pawing his chest. "Shut up." They repositioned, as if trying to prove him wrong, hugging across him and onto his bicep

He rested his chin on top of her head, talking into her a soft, scratchy whisper that allowed him to feel his jaw and teeth with every word he spoke. "We should probably start using condoms..."

Her response was slow, like they were in a dream. "Why?"

Like there was no good answer, but he waited to spring this one on her. "I'm gonna impregnate you by accident one day."

Her head lifted, as her arm ran up his body, resting her hand on his collar bone, trying to get him to look her way. "I'd be okay with that."

He rolled into her. "Wouldn't we end up on one of those talk shows about teen pregnancies?" He spent too much time watching that crap.

She completely enraptured herself into him, speaking to his heart. "I'd be your babymama, Gordon." What sounded like a joke, was clarified by Lor. "If the only way I could be a mom was through a teen pregnancy? I'd do it in a heart beat." She squeezed him.

"What would you name them?"

"Who?"

"Our kids."

Her lips rowed back and forth, thinking about it. "If it was a boy, I'd name him Gordon Jr..."

"Thankfully I'm egotistical like that and would be okay with it - but let me guess, Lor Jr?"

"No, Lydia." He tried to think of famous Lydias, but none came to mind.

He swished it around his palette. "I like it." Though he didn't press as to why she wanted it. 

* * *

Gordon and Lor were sat, knees and legs across eachothers, staring with stupid kid smiles at one another.

"You're getting patchy... I'm gonna have to start calling you Patchy. Or Patches."

"You are not gonna call me Patchy."

"I like a Gordon with facial hair... but I also like one without it. Makes it better for kissing. Let me get my razor..." She motioned to get up.

He blew it off. "I'm not using that pink thing."

She looked annoyed at that response, but tried to think of a way out of it. "Maybe my foster father's?"

"I'm not using your foster dad's either." He started counting them off finger by finger. "I'm not using your mom's, your dads, your aunts, your uncles, your broth-" Gordon hoped not saying it fully would cover him, but even freezing like he did probably made it clear what he said.

Lor shunted herself away from him, staring off to the rest of her room, as she got up and went for her door.

"Lor I-" It was already slammed before he could explain.

Fuck!

I was just trying to make her laugh. But I went too long. Didn't know when to cut it. Didn't know when to shut up.

A knife fell into his hand as he thrust it into his forehead, making himself into a bleeding unicorn, formerly just a jackass.

Or at least that's what he imagined as he fell back into bed.

As he closed his eyes to think about his mistake, he felt his chest tighten, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep. Gordon didn't dream, as the ghosts and embers of bad feelings just fogged his senses. It felt like a deep sleep, but it wasn't, as there was a running tension in his face even in that state - like he wanted to cry or something.

A violent shake. "Wha wha what - I'm up." It took him a second for the shadows to acclimate. He was used to rude awakenings, his mom getting him up around six so he could catch an early morning bus sent to their house. That wasn't the worst part - it was the drive around mostly empty scenery to pick up other kids. He used to get so excited to see grazing cattle or horses before he got a handheld. So many hours spent just sitting to... sit some more. He couldn't complain - if he missed the bus and he wasn't sick - that'd be his ass on the field working. "Oh Lor... Lor I'm sorry." He forced out with a grogginess, only realising then he hadn't locked her out.

"No no no, shhhh... I was wrong." Gordon found his neck cradled in her arms as she planted kisses on the left side of his face - his hand fell onto her peach fuzz filled arm as she stroked his back - she cradled him and he went along with it, thankful she wasn't mad at him.

They rocked like that for awhile, before he acknowledged another problem. "I kinda screwed up my schedule... I didn't mean to sleep, but when you rushed out..."

She let him go, Lor flopping like a fish over to to the side of her bed and reaching for her night stand. She popped a pill bottle open and swallowed something. "Use the computer..." Her voice was so haggard...

"Won't that..." Lor had fallen face first into her bed and already seemed out of it, not responding. He did as he was told. The cold hum of the computer whirring to life, and he kept reflexively looking back to her, expecting Lor to shift at some point, but she was completely comatose - then his face turned as blue and green as the pill in her bottle, the monitor bright, as he tried to change focus, lifting up her headphones and planting them on his ears.

A square popped up in the corner of the screen: LorMcWar is now online. Then another one appeared.

PynchonFangirl02: Are you mad?  
PynchonFangirl02: If this is about the IQ thing, I was just trying to tell you that it's not as big a deal for you because there are other ways to be smart that can't be rated.

Gordon thought about leaving it, and would have preferred to have not even seen the message, but he also didn't want Tish to think anything about the silent treatment.

LorMcWar: Tish, sorry, this isn't Lor. It's you know who.

PynchonFangirl02 is typing

Gordon sat for awhile. Should he even have said that? He should have logged off the instant he was online.

PynchonFangirl02: Oh

His eyes hit the back of his head so hard he had to readjust his neck, as he clicked off and went for the browser. The program was slow to load, but the home page of a search engine eventually came up.

...

His two fingers pecked one at a time. What to even search for?

...

Things that suck

I spent most of the night reading. Rants, mainly - while watching (and rewatching) an occasional web toon. Those suckers were getting big, telling me that they're 1mb and 'gonna take awhile.' So while they were loading, I partook in rants about ninjas, movies I had never seen and celebrities I never thought to hate before - but I had found myself stuffed from reading the archives of bloggers or watching the few good non stick figure animations, as an old habit I had picked up after meeting Lor was wanting to rear its ugly head...

He looked up "Britney celeb porn".

...

WHOA

He couldn't believe it. He stared at it for awhile. Was that actually legit? He looked down to his pants and then to the sleeping Lor behind him.

Was it worth waking her up...? Nah, he could do it quietly, but he was ready to turn that monitor off if he even had a hint of her waking up - and just as he was about to enjoy himself, a square popped up in the corner of the screen.

PynchonFangirl02: I've given some thought as to what you're doing  
PynchonFangirl02: If anything happens, here's my number

He waited for the 'is typing' usual response, but the chat wasn't updating.

The follow up message came fast, bypassing it entirely.

PynchonFangirl02: Look to your left.

There was the sound of something plastic and hollow falling. He pulled off Lor's headphones slowly, as he followed the instructions; a note was indeed written with Tish's number, the pen by it the obvious culprit of the noise.

Show off. 

* * *

"Gord! Gord! It's out! It's out!"

Gordon leaped up to a sitting position. "What? What?" She had the beaming glow of a fangirl as she clutched a grey, fancy looking plastic shopping bag with a small square inside of it, her fingers clutched around its middle. She pulled off the rest, revealing a jewel case, and album art he... didn't really understand the relevance of - his face blank.

"It's Chum Bukkit's new CD..."

"Oh..." He raised his voice. "Oooooooooh!" He nodded like 'yeah, that's exactly what I'm into and am also excited as you are.' Honestly, he had downloaded some of their stuff through a free music program while he was away, having seen her poster way back when, wanting to understand Lor more and... he wasn't a fan. It wasn't like they were bad, but he just wasn't into that kind of industrial metal with nearly nonsense lyrics.

Gordon silently watched her cutely bite through the plastic of the corner wrapping after struggling with her nails for a bit, finally getting it open. Lor knocked her hand into her mouse, the screen saver maze of bricks disappearing as she opened her disc tray and put in the album, unplugging the headphones from the speakers.

Lor landed onto the end of the bed with him, their legs both folded, and the noise hit him like a strong wave - his teeth bit down - yup, that was kind of what he was expecting. A distressing feeling overwhelmed him - what was he gonna do? Tell her it sucked and to turn it off? It's not like he was a music critic, but before when he checked them out, he could just turn it off. Now he was past tense and he couldn't exactly leave the room either. He had to listen to 30-40 minutes of this... please don't be a 2 disc release.

But when he turned to Lor, sort of listlessly jamming to the music... it really calmed him.

He didn't care about the song - but he could watch her listen all night long

_And I feel fine_

_ I feel alright_

_ I feel alright_

_ I feel alright..._


	4. Chapter 4 - hard times for dreamers

The final subdued and delayed knock came, and he unlocked it like usual. Stepping away, the door burst with a loudness that he half expected it was Lor's foster father rushing in. Thankfully, it was just a rambunctious Lor in a backwards cap and an open red windbreaker, quick to sling off her heavy back pack and using her foot to kick the door closed. "IT'S THE WEEKEND! Let's do something! Come on! We can go out, hang at the mall, maybe go to a movie... OH! I know. Here." She threw open her closet, and began throwing out clothes and junk, looking for something. "Got 'em!" She tossed him a ratty looking catcher's mitt, as a lot of its lacing had come loose - but it would do the job if you needed a glove in a pinch. She picked up a ball from behind her desk, having looked like it got stuck there and tossed it in the air before catching it, hers still having that pristine brown 'I just bought it' look.

He followed her to the door and... she looked his way. "Right... going out the window."

It was before the bridge - back to the park where I left her behind - the same park where she found me.

They found their positions on the opposite sides of grass, the path working as their separating net. The sun was looking to set, but it was still plenty bright out. "What do you do all day?" She gave it a light, underhanded toss.

"Oh you know, I just jack it. This hand in fact" He made a point to make sure she knew it was the hand inside the glove before he tossed it.

Damn, she caught it. "What do you do after that?" She gave it a casual pitch.

"Well, I wipe it on your pillow." He gave it a wind up.

Lor had a comeback though. "That's okay, I teabag you when you sleep."

"Ewwwww." Despite her attempted psyche out, he still caught it. He held it behind it his back for a second, trying to think of something to say or how to throw it differently... how about a knuckleball, Lor...

It curved way beyond where she could have even been, going into some bushes.

"Foul!"

"What? You could have caught that if you didn't suck." She was right, but he wouldn't admit it.

"That was a foul! Go get it." With the gloved hand on her hip, Lor tapped her foot.

Gordon acted as if he was going to get the ball, but then darted into her. "I'll show you a foul!", they tumbled through the grass, rolling away from any paths and people, hitting the edge of a mound that sent them down a slope and into a mini grove, both instinctively agreeing to stop near a big root at the bottom, their gloves eventually catching up to them.

Her hat had pulled to the back of her head, nearly off, creasing her hair and making her look like she had a widow's peak. Her cheeks puffed a little, as her smile wasn't just a smile: in the ray of the sun that cascaded between tree leaves that left her in puzzles pieces, it was purely angelic; a sincerity unfelt with anyone else he had ever met - and as she breathed, he breathed, and let his feelings out. "Let's be like this... forever."

Her white bared teeth lapsed back, as her smile formed a tight lipped grimace. He could sense what she was about to say. "But what if you-"

"I won't leave you. I'll never leave you." Pulling up her arm from the turf gently, his thumb and hand ran over each of her individual little fingers, before placing it on her chest. He pushed his lips against hers, forceful; anytime she wanted to leave his face for air, he wouldn't let her, moving like a shark's tail fin in anticipation of her movements - her hand ran up with verve, her fingers on his jaw, his cheek bones; fingers passing through strands of his hair - it was like she was imprinting him to memory, he could even feel her dig out dead skin from his scalp she was so into it.

"Get undressed." He said between gasping kisses. "I want to fuck you." He climbed off her and reached into his pants.

Lor raised herself by her elbows from the grass. "What if somebody catches us? This ain't like the bathroom."

"I don't even care anymore. I want the world to see."

* * *

"Where's the grub?" It had gotten to seven thirty with no sign of Lor or food, with her finally here, he was disappointed to see she was empty handed.

She rubbed the back of her neck. "Diane and Phil have been kinda... twisting my arm into eating more meals with them... but don't worry!" Lor raised her finger triumphantly. "I planned for this." She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar.

Gordon took it like a painful chore: Unwillingly. Then he kinda just looked at it. Then to her, then back to it. It was about as big as the box his toothbrush came in. "A chocolate bar?" He repeated himself again. He didn't want to sound ungrateful... okay he was ungrateful. Even that kinda lukewarm half bowl of pasta was better than this.

She threw up her hands, bowing a little while sounding as apologetic as she could. "Sorry. It's all I could do on short notice."

As he peeled back the yellow plastic like a banana peel, he couldn't help but think of how much of a downgrade this was; From Steaks to Candy Bars: The Gordon Waldgrave Story

At least it had wafers in it...

"So you'll be okay, right? Maybe we can figure something out when I'm done..."

"Yeah, yeah..." He stared at her through a side glance as she back stepped towards her bathroom, the light going on and it closing.

Hmmm

He got a little closer, folding the packaging of his now empty candy as he discarded it before listening in, the water coming on.

He took off his shirt.

Like he saw in the movies, he made a quick move to pray, hand from his forehead and across his bare chest before he opened up the bathroom; the sound of running water now loud, Lor's figure pixelated. He heard his name as he swooped up the clothes from the corner near the door and dropped his shirt in return before stepping out and shutting it. He jumped into bed, dumping them over the side.

The shower stopped as he heard wet feet stamp his way. The door opened a creak. "Gordon. Where are my clothes?"

"There's a shirt for you in there." He sounded casual and distracted about it but was secretly excited.

"That's not... ugh!" She slammed it an inch, hearing rumblings from the other side.

Then she stepped out.

Half naked, Lor stood with her still glistening thighs and legs bundled together for warmth, the water making her only article of clothing cling to her, her figure almost as lewd as if she were wearing nothing, and that's when his fist had to cover his mouth: His shirt wasn't big enough to work as a dress, as Lor struggled with the hem in bringing it down over her naughty bits, but honestly, from where he was, it looked like anything could be between her legs. It also looked like she was about to pee herself too, which he also enjoyed.

"You know I'm wiping my penis on the inside of your shirt, right?" She taunted while he eyed her up from head to toe.

He gave her an all clear with an 'okay' hand gesture, a winked eye, his open one framing her through his pinched together thumb and index finger. "Music to my ears." 

* * *

CHH CHH CHH CHH

Lor yawned and stretched beside him as he brushed his teeth on a lazy feeling Saturday, their positions flipping in the mirror as he moved a bit to the side. "Morning."

"Morning." She grabbed her razor from the cup she kept by the sink, and Gordon knew what was gonna happen once she got a good look at it. "What did you do?" Yeah, he wasn't sure how he was gonna get away with that when it looked like the inside of his armpit but with metal teeth.

He spit. "Yeah... had to use yours. Sorry."

"No. No sorry. It makes me want you here even more." She pulled him into a hug, nuzzling his smoothed face like an attention starved cat while patting his back.

"Heeeey. I'm tryin' to brush here." He sounded angry with a stuffed mouth, but that mirror showed him for the liar he was, the only sound now being a quiet, scratchy, exchange.

Letting go, Lor looked up at him, awestruck and happy. "Now let me cut your hair."

"No!"

* * *

With his hands in his jacket pockets, Gordon rotated on a single spot, unable to tear himself away; he was swamped with horror movie selection front and back, to his left and right were more aisles and rows of the stuff. It was great... but what to choose? Covers pierced with heavy, intimidating, imagery and not a single actor in sight unlike the small selection of DVDs they had - crimson titles embossed red, hockey masks protruding with spotlights, silhouetted figures or fanged vampire fingers. Now, he enjoyed himself the occasional cheeseball horror flick, but he thought of the ones here more in ratios, as in, what were the odds of them getting Lor to hold him close during a scary part? Then that raised the question, what was Lor scared of? Maybe she was the classic fraidy-cat girl trifecta of spiders, rats and bats - or maybe something specific like creepy dolls or zombies in malls?

He saw an occasional glint of Lor walking past him to the comedies and then back to the games, and by the fifth time, he was sure she was doing it on purpose to get him to hurry up. Gordon made his final choice and let the VHS cover fall back as he now held four clamshell cases in his hand. "Ready." Lor exhaled a quiet sigh of relief while grabbing one herself, and when he thought they were gonna go to the front, he instead followed a speed walking Lor to the back row near the front of the store into what seemed to be the sports section, and Lor wasn't kidding around about wanting to go as she plucked them out almost violently, but she was dexterous enough to not knock down any of the display boxes, which was good for him as she didn't seem interested in telling him about them.

His picks started feeling heavy as they approached the check out, his palms sweaty as he placed the stack of four plastic bricks onto the counter, his only question forward. "Do you rent R-rated movies to minors?"

The Videobuster employee had been sorting tapes from a yellow basket before begrudgingly moving to greet them. With dark hair, black eyes and a soul patch, the worker in a polo blue shirt with a yellow collar rested an elbow down near a small stand of microwavable popcorn, looking down at them both. "That's against company policy..." He looked both ways. "And if a legal guardian were to see me... what do you got?" His voice was deep, but obviously put on. He looked over Gordon's stack first. "Crap, crap, entry level, crap." Lor put hers down and Gordon exchanged a nervous glance with her. He read off the next three with total disinterest.

"Contact Sport's Greatest Illegal Eye Gouges, volume 3"

"Boxing's Biggest Hits, volume 5"

"Best Fights In Hockey, volume 10"

Then Lor's fourth choice. "And... hello" His vocal register went even deeper while reading aloud the title. He remembered the cover: it was the face of a surprised woman pulling apart her lips, and on the inside was a skull with eyes. The back of the man's finger tapped the cover. "This is a great one, and what he does with the lawnmower... well, I'll let you kids find out." They were both relieved as Lor handed the counter jockey her Videobuster membership card and he rang them up.

As the door bing bonged them out, he had to ask. "I thought you didn't like the gory stuff?"

"I don't."

...?

* * *

When Lor said 'My parents aren't going to be home for the whole day!', there was only thing he wanted to do besides play house with Lor.

Butter sizzled, nice and hot as he dumped the whipped up eggs into the pan. Lor then grabbed onto him, staring down into the swirling yolk, having spent the last minute prancing about the house while he was whisking. "Uh. Do mine without the egg, please."

He nearly scratched the back of his head with the spatula. "I don't think you know how scrambled eggs work."

"N-no I... I do. Muh-make m-mine with the eggs... and uhm... do the... yeah..." Lor trailed off, her voice going lower with every word she spoke in her mumbled mush.

He was so far ahead of himself he hadn't considered that maybe she didn't like eggs. Who didn't like eggs? Maybe if he was served it on a daily basis the same way over and over he'd get tired of them, yeah... but his mom always found a way to make it different. That got him to think about what he would be making for Lor in ten years from now. "Next time I'll make you an extra cheesy grilled cheese sandwich - no eggs guaranteed. I mean, you do like cheese, right?" He asked while dishing it up.

Lor took a seat. "Psh. Duh, I like pizza don't I?" He thought about mouthing off, something like 'I don't know, do you?', but kept it to himself as he placed it in front of her before he circled back to his spot across from her.

As soon as he was able to sit, he watched Lor spritz the yellow with red, absolutely spanking the hell out of that glass bottle of ketchup.

Oh my god...

No. Don't say anything. It's her food and she can eat them anyway she liked.

He reached over, grabbing some pepper - he had already added the classic S&P while he was preparing it, but he always liked a heavy sprinkle of the stuff, adding brown and black flecks to the fluffy dish. The noise of quiet eating filled the spacious kitchen, and he couldn't help but look out at the greenhouse they had in the backyard, which he noticed before while cooking. He hoped to bring it up as dinner conversation. "Do you miss your parents?"

He froze a bit, but tried to keep himself jovial. "What? Are you tryin' to get rid of me?" Was she trying to get rid of him? Why was she even asking that...

"No no... I'm just... curious." Her wandering eyes bothered him - was she telling the truth? Or maybe she was just trying to find the best way to ask without offending him.

"What am I supposed to do? 'Boo hoo' about 'em?" He was a bit more blunt than he wanted to be.

"Do you think they worry?"

"They're... they're probably fine. At least I know my dad is..." He tapped his food, clinking the plate where there wasn't egg. "I kinda miss some things... my own bed to sleep in, a change of clothes, money to buy myself stuff with, the routine of going to school - and I never thought I'd say that - but... none of that is as important as you." That was true... but only partly. Truth was, he didn't have much of a life to go back to. Beyond his parents, he knew a couple of guys in computer class he played LAN games with, passing around burnt discs and installing them whenever they had free time, but that was it.

"But I get it." He skooted back in his seat, open palms, arms extended. "If you want me to go, I'll go." His face was stern, but his insides were anything but - he was quivering jello.

"Are you gonna do that everytime?" She didn't sound the least impressed; Lor ripping another one of his veils

"What?" He acted the fool.

"Threatening to leave." A flashback to his first night back. She had him hook, line, and sinker - and there was only one thing he could do at a time like this:

"I don't know, will I?" 

* * *

With his nose like a whistle, his mouth sucked in air, and with every breath, his throat singed him; he couldn't help sounding like those of the undead, as everytime he thought he cleared his throat, he had to do it again, finding himself in a ceaseless cycle before ultimately making it hurt even more. He shifted constantly, always uncomfortable, always shivering. God knows what Lor rubbed up against at school to make him feel like this. Gordon tried laying on his stomach and even his side, but his mouth drooled and his nose leaked like a faucet onto her pillow, and he hated himself when he did.

He heard their door open. "Hot soup comin' through!"

He pulled the covers off his face to cough, now seeing Lor pass by the bathroom, two handing the sides of a smoking hot bowl that she placed down on the bedstand with a clink, knocking over a box of sheets that she was quick to put back. "I'm sorry I'm sick." His hacks were wet in his neck somewhere.

"How are you gonna eat this on your back?" Gordon let out some disgruntled noise as he reached back over his shoulder and moved the pillow into his lower back as he sat up; blanket slipping down. He wasn't even hungry. In fact, he didn't really feel anything besides sick in this state, and-

It was a good thing he was facing forward, as his face went off; spit and mucus flying everywhere it could, the insides of his nose irritated as he grabbed another tissue. "Lor... Lor please... take me out back and finish me off..." His voice muffled weak behind paper, he wasn't even sure how serious he was with that statement.

"Don't say things like that." She slapped his blanket covered body which impacted soft. Guess she must have interpreted it one way. He did wonder what it would be like to sneeze midflight; would he lose all concentration and plummet or would it be no big deal?

He watched her lean down, giving it a stir before spooning it up. Lor blew off some steam, her lips puckering, Gordon was even too sick to even fantasize about her doing that to him instead. She had the steady hands of a surgeon, guiding it slowly from the stand and raising it to him, rightfully scared of spilling it. The yellow broth's heat was just a hint below hot, but still warm enough that he pictured germs roasting alive on his palate, the noodles soft and sippable. "You're lucky we still had some chicken soup left because I wasn't going to walk all the way to the grocery store just for you." His face remained static, not judging, not really caring. "... Because I would have taken my bike." Lor broke the spell of misery he was under for just a second.

She served him like that for awhile and everytime the spoon met his lips, he thought there had to be a catch somewhere eventually; he'd have done it if she had asked, but there was no complaining, no 'I hate you for making me do this but I secretly try to hide it' faces... she just wanted him to get better. It kinda bothered him that he thought like this. Why does everyone need to have an ulterior motive? That wasn't Lor's style... but why him? Why treat him so well? Maybe getting sick was karmic justice for enjoying the perks of living with Lor too much... he needed this reality check. "Thank y-"

Maybe it came out as a blurt because she didn't notice as he accepted it back into his mouth. "All gone. Now, I have a pill for you and you can finish the rest of your juice to get 'er down." Lor presented both, dropping the tablet into his open palm as he took it and threw it past his teeth; he then pounded back that room temperature OJ like it was the cure and he had seconds to live, dislodging the pill. The sweet and salty liquids went down well together, the only thing that felt well about his body today; he urped but didn't burp as he put down the glass with a lot more liveliness. "Now get some rest." The back of her hand strayed across his forehead and he nodded obediently. He slid below the covers, and by the time he had them back over his head, he was already out of it.


	5. Chapter 5 - sleepwalking

Gordon had to go.

Like, he really had to go.

But he didn't want to do it around Lor - and as his stomach churned, he knew of only one place he could do it this late at night.

Emerging from the convenience store bathroom, Gordon made a beeline for the swirling ice and pop machines. If there was one thing about old Bahia Bay he could count on besides Lor, it was the chuggafreezes - and the idea of actually being able to finish one without violent intervention was too tempting to pass up, despite his limited funds. He thought of maybe a solid single flavor or a mix of several like coke and the lemon lime one. He bit into the rim of the paper cup, flicking it against his nose as he tried to figure out what he wanted.

"You're the last person I expected to see." The cup fell as he caught it in a clutch, turning to find Tino, almost unrecognizable. "What's up?"

"Whazzuuuuup you tanned sumbitch." They slapped five, nearly painfully so.

"Maaaaaaan, forget that frozen swill."

He looked at his cup with pretend dejection. "But I like my frozen swill."

"They don't even clean the machines." Tino held up a plastic bag, a clear weight inside. "This is the real deal. Six of the most over caffeinated beverages on the market. I've heard even just one is dangerous - so you know it's gotta be good."

He wasn't looking to feel jacked up this late, but in his current state, he wasn't going to turn down a free drink. He put the cup back into the stack and walked with Tino, but he did feel bad for not buying anything - especially after using the facilities, he tried not to look at the clerk.

Outside the convenience store, they stood, their profiles luminescent from the unfiltered store glass, staring out into the void of darkness of Bahia Bay. Tino had already started off.

"Why don't we drink them here?"

"They've got a killer no loitering policy. Besides, I know a safe place where we can drink these." Safe? Gordon looked back to see a no loitering sign he swore wasn't there before - but then again, maybe it was just bad memory.

Safety didn't even cross his mind as they commanded the cement walks to whatever destination they were going to, crossing streets and jaywalking without care. He felt like they were in a music video, his jacket unzipped, faces locked forward, though he lagged just a little behind Tino as he wasn't sure where they were heading, but he felt ready for anything - anybody.

"Having moved around a lot, I've had a theory that you had a chance to reinvent yourself over and over again, and thus, had a chance at being a cool kid. Confirm or deny?"

"Denied. I was never the cool kid." As the new guy, to be part of a group, you'd have to do something extremely stupid to get in good with them, and even after all that, you'd still be on the bottom rung and feel like the tagalong. Hell, what rung was he on with the four of them? Feels like he only ever got in because of nepotism. "What about you? Are you the cool kid?"

"Maybe in my future, sugar and caffeine fueled fantasies - but nope - I thought I was about to have a taste of it and enter eternal cool-dom when I was invited to join something called the uh..." He snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, the Lone Wolves Club"

"Y'know, about two years ago I would have thought that was the coolest name ever."

Tino almost guffawed. "Right? We all thought they were - turns out they were just a couple of dorks that make my dorkitude look like attitude." He ran ahead of Gordon before turning and walking backwards. "This is what they made me say for an initiation test - ready for this? Can't believe I still remember this part... my pup name is cubby caboose; so ugly I look like a moose. I'm mangy and smelly, with worms in my belly - for my bad breath, there is no excuse."

Gordon's face cocked. "You lost me at pup name. That's a little gay, isn't it?"

"That really should have been the first sign."

Gordon tried to think of a follow up to that, but his eyes kept looking at the close shave of a style he had. Guess he was gonna have to mention it: Tino's bleach blonde was cut extremely short, something he'd describe as military. "Hey Tino I like the cut. Makes you look like..." Gordon shifted his throat, as he tried to deliver a deep and pompous voice. "Blow it out your ass."

"Who?"

"Nah nothing. It's a PC game... nobody steals our chicks... and lives..." He laughed at the quote, but Tino didn't get it. "No but... I've been thinking about getting a haircut. If I don't do something about it, I will be mangy and smelly."

"Is this about Lor?"

He caved. "Yeaaaaah."

"Fuhgettaboutit. Lor would like you even if you were a pile of puke on stilts." That's what he was afraid of.

Gordon wasn't assured. "You guys made me cry back then when you were telling me she was into older dudes. What's so different these days?"

"When Lor crushed on a guy... she would emit this... incomprehensible mouth noise - like she was eating her own hair, but couldn't get it down. That's the way she used to be, but I haven't heard it in a couple years now." Gordon wouldn't admit he was happy that she hadn't moved on. "But I've been meaning to ask... what's she like... you know, compared to a regular girl?"

Gordon turned a little sour. "What are you saying, Tino?"

"What?"

"That'd be impossible for me to know, because the only girl that I've been with is Lor - and nothing compares to Lor..." He stared off and away.

"You're not even drunk and you're already spilling your guts. Imagine if I had bought that six pack..."

That pulled Gordon out of his slump. "You almost bought a six pack?"

"Yeah, I saw it in a movie from the 80's - stand outside a beer store with money and ask an adult to buy you some."

"So where's the brewski?" He thought he heard someone refer to beers as brewskis before.

"You try asking strangers for beer."

"Pussy."

Man, how long were they gonna keep walking? First this neighbourhood he didn't recognize, then cutting through an alley and now going through this empty church parking lot? Gordon looked up, the white cross held up high in the dark sky, but no matter how high it seemed, it felt reachable. A mini spotlight splashed across the sign. 'St. Michael's Church of Bahia Bay Latterday Saints'

Then Tino slowed near the church's entrance and Gordon realised this was the destination.

I guess if you couldn't be safe near a church, where was safety guaranteed?

Tino opened up his bag of goodies, sorting a hand through them. "Which one you want? I got cola, grape, blueberry-"

"Yo." He slapped his hands and gave a 'give it here' hand gesture and Tino passed it

Tino and Gordon took up a seat on a concrete parking slab; an unforgiving and narrow bench, hard as stone, their butts already beginning to numb after just a couple minutes. The drinks popped and fizzed and they were soon sucking down something called reVolt Cola - the cans had a positive and negative symbol at their respective tops and bottoms, as if trying to look like an oversized battery.

"It's good right?"

Gordon took another quick sip. "Oh. Yeah. Y'know I'm surprised you asked me to come drink with you, this seems more like a you and Carver thing to do."

"Aaaaah... Carver..." Tino seemed to completely disregard his mention at first. "Carver's been hanging out with people. Different people. Ever since he's gotten mainstream attention, feels like he's a different person. Talk about spillin' guts... I feel like I'm losing my best friend."

"Ah, the media'll lose interest in 'em. Then he'll come crawlin' back to his real friends."

"Do you think so?"

"No, I'm just blowin' smoke - I don't fuckin' know." He took a hard sip. "But if you're actually, ACTUALLY, best friends, then he'll want to hang out again."

"Now what makes you say that?"

"I'm here, aren't I?"

They quietly chugged, before reaching for some more.

The sound of glass shattering echoed, as the bleating of a car alarm went off in the far distance. Gordon shot up, almost drawn to it on an instinctual level. He stared down an empty road full of parked cars, not a soul or action in sight, but the perpetrator was somewhere.

"Relax. Somebody'll take care of it." Tino punctuated that thought by cracking open his can.

Gordon turned to face Tino with total disbelief, like Tino had just been replaced by an alien. "What are you talking about? We have super powers."

He pointed to where the disturbance was with the can in his hand. "By the time we get there, they'll be long gone and somebody will have called the cops and then we'll be the suspects."

Gordon slowly started descending back to his seat, realising the more time they wasted talking was proving him right. "What's up Tino? It's like you got no fight in ya."

"Two years ago while you're gone, everything goes to shit. Two years ago, people used to sleep on the beach. Now they don't. The whole..." Tino's two hands waved in front of one another, as if they were two gangs daring the other to throw the first finger, but then he dropped them, having found the words. "... mood of this place changed."

"Well shit, what happened? It used to be pretty flat too, now I see some tall ass buildings since I got back." He sniffed, wiping his nose. "I still don't think that makes it a metropolis..." He thought of the comics he read years ago with places described as metropolises... metropoly... metropolies...

"It's drugs. Been flooding in more and more."

"Like Miami?"

"Yeah. I read that whole surrounding area got richer in the 80's. It's been coming from... the south."

Gordon tried to think of south of Bahia or south of California, but couldn't connect the dots. "South of where?"

Tino seemed uncomfortable. "Don't make me say it."

"What?"

"The border."

"Oh..." This must have been a sore subject for Tino. There was no way he could discuss this with his normal friends, and he felt like Tish was the type to really not get it.

Tino changed topics. "So what have you been up to you?"

"Uh, y'know..." Gordon shrugged, sitting back down. "My dad got me into boxing after what happened. Though I'm not sure even a world class boxer could have gotten himself out of that."

"Dad huh?" Tino seemed to get lost in thought, looking off to Gordon's side.

He tried to remember the last time he was at Tino's house. It was just him and his mom... "Uuuuh... sorry."

"It's alright... I just thought you and I... nah, nothing. Honestly, I thought being raised by a single mom would help me understand women more, which is why I thought I got to date Tish-"

"No way." He cut him off, but still let him talk. Gordon acted like he was still part of their social group and this was some big reveal.

"-in the first place. And I think I might have pushed her away... like my mom pushed my dad away." They opened up the last two. "It's... kind of why I brought up you and Lor earlier."

"Ah, you want a bit of my mojo, huh?" His pinky hit the side of his lip and out spouted a low quality impression. "Well Mr. Powers, it doesn't come cheap."

Tino nearly choked on his drink. "What is that movie, three years old? Shut the fuck up."

Gordon tried to get his head in the game. "Right right... uhm... this isn't a dig at your tastes, because she is cute: But what do you see in Tish? And be honest."

"I know it's a cliche, but she really is the last thing I think about in bed and the first thing I think of when I get up." Now Tino was speaking his language. "We've been friends forever, and whenever Carver or Lor screwed us over, we were always there for one another - and Tish completes me intellectually. If there's a hard math question? We both know it. A really hard math question? She knows it and can explain it to me. I mean... does that even make sense?" Tino kicked the backs of his shoes together. "Guess I'm more neurotic than smart."

"Wait. I thought Carver was the neurotic one."

"No, he's the prissy one."

"It's simple... well, it's not simple exactly..." He delayed the truth from Tino, still trying to find it in his own possession somewhere. "I don't know why Lor likes me, like I keep hoping I'm secretly handsome and that my mom was right, but I doubt it. So I'm the wrong person to ask. What me and Lor have... is unique, so trying to copy me won't help - but maybe what makes you two unique is special to her, so maybe play that up a little more... but then again I'm probably making this up as I go along and have no idea what the quick fix is."

His eyebrows went up as far as they could. "Now I wish I had asked Carver to come out... thanks for trying." Tino tilted as far back as he could to polish off the last one, making sure no droplet went to waste, before dropping it into the store bag.

Gordon dumped out the last bit of his drink, the grape and blueberry ones were tasty as hell, but the straight up cola one tasted like battery acid, and it kinda hurt his teeth. He passed the empty aluminum to Tino, as they stood up, making their way home - but one detail that meant little on the walk here now rang clearly: The graffiti. A tag in particular, the word PARADISE scrawled in black on the outside of a clinic that doubled as a convenience store.

Lor's room.

It was quiet - it felt like they had gotten all their talking out of their system, but something still bothered Gordon.

"Are you actually super strong?"

"Want to find out?" Tino said it like a warning.

He didn't hesitate. "Yeah." Gordon lost his footing, and he wasn't trying to fly. "Hey hey hey hey!" He felt trapped in a claw machine, as he saw Tino with a smile. "You cocksucker!" Gordon swung at Tino and sounded like a snarling dog on a leash.

"Hey, whoa! You asked." Tino was quick to set him down.

"Yeah yeah... real hilarious." He checked his clothes and collar to see if anything was loose or ripped under a flickering street lamp, though the only thing damaged was his pride.

Tino was apologetic. "I shouldn't have done that, but come on... it was just a joke."

They started walking again. Gordon let his anger subside, hands in his pockets, before giving Tino his spiel. "I didn't mean to call you a cocksucker. I've been having real confidence issues. Have you ever been in a fight, Tino?"

"I'm the tough guy on our team - I've never been the tough guy before."

"Since I lost, I've always been thinking nonstop about it. Sometimes I have phantom pains from it." Not to mention the nightmares, but he wasn't gonna mention that to Tino. "And yeah I know it was sixteen of them or something, but that doesn't stop you questioning or rethinking it and what I could have done different."

"So you're saying it wasn't worth it..."

"Mmmm, no. I'm not saying that."

"So you're saying it was worth it..."

"Mmmmm, not saying that either."

"So what are you saying?"

Gordon had thought about this for years... two to be exact. He pushed and pulled internally on whether or not it was worth it. He mostly left it to a 'agree to disagree' mentality. There had to be a way to sum it up. "I think it's stupid what I did... but I think it's stupider to not stand up for yourself."

Tino stuck his hand over his mouth, before talking in a fast, yet professional, mumble. "Tonitini enterprises does not inherently endorse the actions of Gordon Waldgrave, living or dead..." He dropped the act. "The real question, ol' Gordo ol' buddy, is whether or not you'd do it again."

He jumped in front of Tino. "See this tooth? Chipped - and I know it was those pieces of shit. Everytime my tongue licks my teeth, I get-" Gordon pounded his chest. "Pissed - and I start to think that this wouldn't have happened if my family didn't take me to Bahia Bay in the first place and I'd be better off." They realigned their pace.

"Geeze if that's how you feel, imagine how Lor is."

"What do you mean?" Gordon was quick to the hip with that response, sounding a little accusatory.

Tino shrugged, trying to blow it off. "Y'know. I'm sure she tried to fight off her brothers. The guilt probably gets to her sometimes."

Gordon stopped, peering over the curb like a pit had just opened up, not really paying attention as Tino crossed. The day Lor bludgeoned him felt real again - talk about a phantom pain - it was such a phantom to him that only Lor knew the feeling. Lor had to hate them - had to hate herself. Had to hate her boyfriend that left her behind for two years. Had to want to cry. Had want to give it up and call it a day... call it a life. Yet through all that, she never showed the slightest bit of the caustic reaction it should have left as an imprint. Lor has shown him nothing but kindness, love and understanding and yet she...

Gordon sucked in his teeth and crinkled his nose - the only way he could stop himself from tearing up. Tino wasn't gonna wait, and just as he was about to launch himself across, a car drove by. Gordon tried to play it off as if he wasn't about to cross, then rushed over as the space allowed.

They nodded to one another, and kept walking.

Lor asked nothing of him. Never complained even though she had every reason to.

He had to repay her.

* * *

He and Tino came to a fork - a fork he recognized because one way was to Lor's. Gordon stopped, as Tino kept walking the other way, waving. "You got next. Later days, Gordon."

Gordon threw up an unseen peace sign. "Uh, later days."

The fingers folded, finding reservation in his pockets. He traipsed back home. Gordon could feel that thumping rush begin to knock in his head from the caffeine, but it couldn't hold him down, as he zig zagged from the road to the sidewalks, his head craned, trying to find patterns in the cement jags and points. "I jumped across... I jumped across for you... cause she was all yellow..." He wondered if Lor was still down in the clouds. Hell... she might even be up and worried. He might have made just the slightest hint of a sound before leaving, waking her as he shut the window. Now she was worried about him, wondering what he was doing. Maybe... maybe she was crying right now.

He almost galloped on reflex.

He turned a corner, a few more houses down and he'd be at the hedges of Lor's home - but instead he dipped behind a car.

The sound of a gate clinking shut, as someone emerged from Lor's. Baggy grey sweatshirt with a hoodie wrapped around the figures head.

Someone he knew wasn't Lor.

Wait, no. That was Lor. It was her figure - a figure he could recognize anywhere... so what was she doing out late? Maybe out for a jog, which he normally wouldn't have worried him, but after what Tino told him, why shouldn't he? Maybe it was just like he thought, and she woke up with him nowhere in sight and was worried, now trying to find him? He toyed with the idea of flying in front of her.

Yet there was a curiosity about Lor. What made her tick? What got her up this late? So he kept pace far enough to where he was sure she couldn't see him. Which was hard to do, because she wasn't stopping for anything. His smile progressively got less and less. It was way past the convenience store and church, and was far more inland, away from the beach and neighborhoods he knew.

He almost froze up at the new area he was about to step into, but he couldn't lose Lor. The undercurrent idea of crossing the wrong railroad tracks coursed through him as he went from uptown to downtown. He knew the feeling of Bahia Bay, and this wasn't it. All these squeaky clean new high rise apartments and office buildings... the whole block felt soulless, like something he'd design in a sim game to be as efficient as possible. Cubes built on top of cubes to stuff in as many people as you could. He wondered if they blocked out the sun sometimes.

It's funny. When he was flying in, this change barely registered to him; these buildings were all so generic, a little imposing, sure, but they all looked the same...

Maybe how it looked didn't matter...

When the walk had become mind numbing, he started focusing on what else? Lor's wiggling hips, and just as he was about to enjoy himself, Lor cut into an alley.

He hit the corner's edge. Why? Why here? Why so far away?

The night life was quiet thankfully, as he listened in.

"I got your page. You got the money?"

His eye peaked over. There seemed to be an exchange going on... the baggie was see through and stacked with them. He leaped out, kicking a large green dumpster. The sound spooking both of them. "YOU. GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" The dealer made his exit, as he closed in on a dazed Lor. The look on her face seemed to respond very poorly to the idea of her boyfriend finding her buying drugs.

Her blue eyes were big and buggy, looking up to him like he was the only man alive and it was her first time meeting him.

"Go home, Gordon." Her glazed expression didn't even crack. It was the only time he had ever considered hitting a girl. His hatred for what she had said grew in a way that he could feel himself vibrate. He smacked the ziplock of pills out of her hand. She weakly reached for it, her voice just as raggedy as her movement. "Heeeeeeeyyyy..."

He checked her, pressing her into the brick wall behind her. She seemed unable to look at him. He wanted to make her feel small. That was the point. "You know what could happen? YOU KNOW WHAT COULD HAPPEN?"

"Get off me!"

"One of these fuckheads could be a cop - and guess what? They could bust you on this. Okay, let's say you were smart and played your cards right, and what you did flew completely under the radar and you managed to not get caught until you were eighteen... that's where they don't fuck around and could send you away; so some big dick swingin' guy like me could get to you, and he won't care about what your brothers or your father did to you." Gordon was never actually sure about the extent of the abuse by her father, but threw that in to barb her all the same.

"Shut up!" She tried to meekly struggle away from him, but he jostled her weak wrists and flipped her, twisting her arm like an officer would with a perp. Lor mashed part of her face into the bricks, her hood coming off, her shaggy bobcut falling out and framing her features; her eyes wide and out there, almost animalistic. Two fingers of his dug into the the elastics of her waist band, and pried her sweat pants down with ease, her panties coming down in the same tug. Lor closed her legs, but a stiff kick against her red and white sneakers opened her exposed ass enough for him to be able to start, taking a firm squeeze of her squishy cheeks before pulling them apart at the seam.

The cold nipped him, so it surely cut Lor, and he could see it and feel it in her skin.

He had recreated her back entrance in his image, so getting into her ass was not a question of if, but when - yet Lor still fought him on this. There was no easy passage into her as like before when she happily spread her legs for him, eager to see him with a wink of her eye and her hole, or even as painful as it was for her in the bathroom of that coffee bar where she still found a way to accept him; now she was caterwauling and sputtering about as if she were going to climb up the very wall they were against.

His cock entered her.

He wasn't sure what was egging him on to do this, as Lor's reaction certainly wasn't helping, but something was telling him that this was the only way she'd learn - maybe it was his body lying to him that this was the righteous deed she needed. Putty in his hands, she quietly whimpered, her back against his torso, his face buried in the nape of her neck. "Shhh... shhh..." Her spasming fights became less and less. "That's right..." He tried to get into character. "That's right... bitch... take it." He breathed as he used the brickwork for leverage, while steadily feeding her over and over again, watching himself as he did.

Now he had gone from pinning her to gradually needing to use her to keep himself balanced, as she was the one that moved away from the wall altogether, presenting herself to him more and more, eventually putting her own hands up, his knees needing to bend, which allowed him to beat his pleasure into her with harder and harder thrusts while taking full hold of her hips - he was in control, but not the only one into it, his cock sliding nearly all the way out, but her hole still too tight around his tip to let him go.

His hands sunk into her shoulders like he was about to carry her off into the night sky, his final pumps coming - and he did. He sucked deep through his teeth, as he marked her close to hour glass shape with his hands, trying not to touch her again while coming off of her. Her ass looked like he had hocked a particularly gooey loogie up her asshole and it only just started dripping out. It kind of looked like a mouth either trying to spit or swallow, he wasn't sure; her pink hole oozing his white was enough to get him to want to do it again, but he stayed his hand; though with her uncooked weenie leaking strands of wet spider webs, he knew she had enjoyed it.

As he secured himself, wiping his nose, he looked down to the pills. Some of them were crushed into drug built ant hills or just soggy, a few still looked salvageable in the bag.

Gordon stamped his foot on the rest.

Lor was an absolute mess, almost beginning to walk away with wrapped ankles, before scrambling to yank up her sweats, she still wouldn't look him in the eye, instead, looking out of the alleyway to the street. As he saw the front of her pants get wet, he strolled over to her. Gordon stuck his hand into the crack of her ass, forcing those misaligned pants and panties up into where he had cum - and as soon as he felt her clothes getting soggy, he retracted them, and he could already see the wet stain forming into dark grey.

He left her looking absolutely embarrassed.

* * *

They were naked again, back at home. An agreed acceptance of what happened between them as they got under the sheets, their sweaty bodies that stunk of sex; clinging to one another for warmth they didn't need.

"Lor... why do you do that stuff?"

She didn't turn, her voice a slow, tired, crawl "When I'm on them, I have these wicked amazing dreams... not like my usual dreams..."

"Oh..." He spooned her. "What about those ones on your nightstand?"

"I need them to sleep." He gave another 'oh' response and kissed the hairs on her head. It was actually one of the colder California nights, yet he still felt trapped in a sauna while being up against her, and the only way out was to kiss this girl, which he took with gusto. He had an idea as to why she needed them to sleep, but he kept his mouth shut, no more bad ideas, no more bad deeds. Just them. He shifted on the bed and onto his back, staring up, his arm falling off the side into stacks and stacks of pillows.

But since she was in a question answering mood...

"What are the pillows for?"

"..." Lor seemed to want to pretend to sleep, and he was gonna let her, until "I used to hug them thinking they were you..."

He almost forgot why he was so mad at her.

Almost.


	6. Chapter 6 - exit strategy

He found himself in the dream of the shore near another world. His lonely little island...

The whirlpool he had thought once to jump in, he knew to dive into; rather than water swallowing him whole, time's scar enveloped him with a surge, taking him back. Back to that night.

Between palm trees on the dark horizons, the double doors stared him down. He knew what awaited him - he always knew what awaited him.

His vintage jacket shrouded him, somehow able to fit perfectly; it was longer as well, flowing down and moving even when he wasn't, the words on the back changing, sometimes written in spray paint, sometimes not.

Gordon wandered through shadows creep to the tune of excited lads; a proud father admiring his work. It always went like this. "Hey." He turned from the crack of the door he was staring through only to meet a walloping blow to the face; the old man fell, skidding down the wall, holding out for anything to keep himself upright before hitting the ground like a bag of sand.

His foot met the door. "Knock knock." Sports pennants, posters and trophies belied the attrocity about to take place as they circled her and her bed from all sides, now turning their attention to him. He knew what would have actually happened, so instead, it was a choreographed ballet of violence. They seemed to line up for him, falling into blow after blow. No matter what angle they came from, he always had the perfect counter. He even caught some of them with sharp kicks; kicks in styles he had never practiced before in his life.

The only ones left standing were him and her. Laying above the fray in her bed, she lay cocooned in fright. She shivered and shook, her forehead covering her crossed together hands, as she slowly raised her face up when nothing bad came her way, eyes like diamonds and her pants halfway off. This young girl... this kid... he knew her... he loved her... she was his star stealing girl...

He reached out his hand. She was trepidatious, but eventually accepted. He moved with fleet of foot with her in tow; avoiding those that had fallen and leading her down the stairs back to the outside of the house, stealing this jewel from this viper filled manor. He didn't actually have a plan, he just knew she had to be away from this.

While walking through the dew laden yard, he let her go for just one second to think. "Y-y-you're not gonna leave me, are you?"

He took her by the shoulders and focused in on her, the lights in the night sky looming. "I won't leave you. I'll never leave you." As he tried to take her hand again, he ghosted right through her. He watched her face become wet as he started fading - he had become her ephemeral memory - just when she needed him most...

Sat in a booth surrounded by houndstooth patterned floors, someone was across from him. "Who are you?" Their face constantly shifting from an untraceable origin.

"I think you know who I am." The voice was intensely familiar - just older. He ordered a plate of scrambled eggs. "What kinda life are you living?" He asked while peppering them. "There are women - ACTUAL WOMEN out there." His hand breezed by the window, the world out there too bright to envision.

"But I love her..."

There was a hint of disgust in his breath as he rubbed his hands over his food like he hadn't eaten in years. "What? You can't love someone else? Or maybe YOU just can't FIND somebody else." The thing jutted his utensil out at him like it was a pitchfork. "Well isn't that pathetic... but you know what's even more pathetic? Think about this: Would she have even touched you if she wasn't touched first?" The man fed his sneer.

He restated his case, adding "Don't you get it? She was the first girl to teach me that someone could actually love me without having to be family. Without her I'd be nobody... I am nobody..." But he didn't just sit there and take it. "You know what? THEY'RE nobody. Lor chose me - she chose ME!" He battered his ribs. "I am somebody!" Gordon ran his tongue over his chipped tooth. "You know what else? You're never gonna experience this love I have. I'll make sure of it."

"First of all, you don't love a conquest, because that's all she should be at this point: A conquest. A notch in the ol' belt. Second - getting involved with family drama? You only do that when you marry them. What did I teach you..." His hands met his face in frustration. "I shoulda clipped your wings when I had the chance." He then brought up another helping of eggs. "Now stop crying and eat your damn pizza."

No matter how many times he tried, the pizza had no taste.

Then Lor woke up.

* * *

"Bullshit. Bullshit. BULLSHIT." His vision turned red with blood again. He looked down to the floor. "Stop screen cheating, Carver." He used to like this game? Two years ago, yeah, it was cool. Now? It was just lame. Them kicking his ass at it didn't help - always coming in third - and this controller wasn't helping. He didn't have 3 hands for a three pronged dildo. He hated the blocky looking characters, blurry graphics and environments that didn't make a lick of sense. At one point he was running into a wall and didn't even know it - but they seemed to know where everything was, including all the armor. He already missed Lor's Xstation and that skating game she owned. That game was great, and he didn't even like skateboarding. The characters were actually detailed, the graphics weren't blurry and the framerate was buttery smooth.

Guess it was more about hanging out than actually trying to enjoy this archaic experience... to his left was his man, Tino. On the end was Tish, watching them play because Tino only had three controllers, and there he was; in one of Lor's hats and a pair of Carver's shades. He hoped the long hair and regrown 'stache was enough to keep his secret of who he was from Tino's mom, fearful of having been on a milk carton somewhere.

He was tired of the game though, and he wanted to pass the controller to... where was Lor?

Lor came from the kitchen, stepping over cords to finally reach Tish - she whispered something to her, and they both went upstairs - possibly to Tino's room.

"Deal me out guys."

He set his controller down, and did a diving motion to not block the game. If they had just gone to the bathroom, he'd feel like a chump - but that wasn't the feeling he got. There was something more urgent in their body language. Was it what he feared from before? She couldn't... not while he was here. As he walked up the dark stairs, the kitchen light faded more and more. His feet felt like they were in syrup - his journey to the top took the breath out of him for some reason, as his hands met the top of the stairs, but not in a fall, but more like... he was just sucked of energy.

He watched the door in the hall to his right as Tish closed it and leaned against it; her chin met the top of her chest, looking astray.

He called to her. "Tish? Where's Lor?"

"Hey. Gordon." She tried to stand up straighter, but didn't have the spirit for it. "She's... she's in there." Her thumb, with a glacial pace, pointed back over her shoulder.

It was like he was injected with adrenaline as he went to face her. "What's going on? We're not doing this song and dance again - just let me talk to Lor."

"Wait. Lor's..."

"Yes?" His voiced raised like an impatient teacher.

"... Lor's..." Before he could prod her again "Lor's father has been released from prison... and Lor doesn't want you to know." 

* * *

"I thought you were bringing us up some pop?" He watched Tish climb up with fruit on her arms instead of drinks.

"Fruit is the candy and soda of the natural world... plus, Miss Tonitini said the fruit was gonna go bad soon." She tossed him the red apple, while she peeled at her orange.

We stood on Tino's outside observatory, overlooking a sunsetting world. Periodically, he kept looking back to the door, half expecting Lor to come out. Maybe she had gone back downstairs... he could only imagine how she might have discovered the news about him. Maybe in the school's computer lab... god forbid if she heard it from someone at school; a rumor passed around during lunch.

"I can't believe I'm still doing this hiding from Lor crap." He took a loud crunch of his red apple.

"How's she been?"

He answered in between his horse like chewing. "She's good. This news has been a slap to the face, I imagine - you should be telling me Lor's reaction."

"That's why I wanted to talk; I'm worried about you both. How long do you keep expecting to go on like this?" Gordon didn't answer. "What if they see you? What if you get sick? What if-"

Gordon squinted to near blindness at her in annoyance. "Tish, enough with the questions about Lor and me. Are you just the question lady? Have we ever had just a casual, one on one conversation? God, I'm sick of even answering those questions to myself. You don't even like me, do you?"

Tish was straightforward. "I care about you because Lor cares about you."

His hands threw up in a mocking 'eureka' moment. "That's exactly my point! At least Carver's honest; we have nothing in common, so we don't hang out. Me and Tino do - but you" He produced his hand to her in a slicing motion. "You only want to talk to me when you want to play matchmaker or 'solve our problems'." He threw up quoting rabbit ears and put on a mocking tone for that last part, then went back to his normal, albeit miffed, way of speaking. "I appreciated it that one time, but please, just butt out now."

Tish stopped even pretending to pick at her orange. "The first year with Lor after you were gone... she wasn't like before. She wore baggy, black clothes. She preferred staying in her room and sleeping; yet she always looked tired with dark circles under her eyes. We would practically have to drag her out. We thought she had given up sports entirely."

He nearly spit his apple chunks at her. "What? Do you think I fucking did that?"

"Let me finish. The following school year, she seriously got back into sports and everything. I thought she was over it. We all did. Then, at a sleepover, she burst out crying and held onto me, telling me she still missed you. Lor and I had a cry about it... I cried that she was still in pain. These past few weeks while you were around her? It's like before - really, really, like before... I just don't want it to go off in your face, okay? Cause her friends will be hit too."

He flipped his apple to the other side, no longer looking at Tish. "Don't worry about us, I got it."

He bit down on it. 

* * *

He collapsed. Another set of push ups done. He struggled into a sitting position, wrist on his knee, other leg below the arch of the other, before downing a bit of water from the cup Lor gave him.

Lor wanted him to tell her shit and not keep secrets, now she was doing it to him. How did he even get out? Good behavior? Fuck 'em.

Gordon sprung up and started with the basics: Jab jab, cross

left left, right

left left, right

left left, right

He wished he had some equipment; doing it by shadow only helped so much - but a couple more nights of this would get him ready for it more than anything else he could do. If only he and Tino encountered... I don't know, a gang or something - he'd feel a bit more comfortable now.

He toweled himself off before sitting at Lor's chair. He turned on the computer like usual and... huh. A password prompt. Wasn't expecting that.

Was it because he looked at porn? Or maybe Tish said something. Said something about what he might do. Hmmm. He might have to take up her earlier offer and call her. As he stared at the rubbery digits, he weighed his options. Tish might not help him - and she could instead feed Lor information about what he was doing, and he didn't want Lor to know.

...

Screw it

BEEP BEEP BEEP

As it came to its fourth ring, he almost hoped she wouldn't pick up.

She did. "Hello?"

"Tish. You said two years ago, to 'trust me on this' - and I believed you. Right?" The other end was silent. "Now I need YOU to trust me, because I need to get into her computer. What would her password be?" He rotated in Lor's chair back to the screen, ready to type in her answer, or for Tish to type it for him.

"It'll be her mothers name."

"Diane?"

"No. Her real mother." Tish hung up the phone. He thought about calling back, but knew he was pushing his luck. Gordon dropped the cordless and sat back in frustration. What was her name... what could be her name? He tried Martha first. That seemed like a typical mom name... and nothing. He tried Diane just to be sure, and still no. Did he really want to dig in her closet again just in case she had a photo album? He replayed past conversations in his mind, and nothing came up. What if Tish had given him a red herring? What if it was one of her friends names or even his name? Or... hmmmm...

L  
Y  
D  
I  
A

The slow load of her desktop came, icons pouring in, but only one held his focus as he double clicked it. The home page was a search engine, and he had some idea of what to type after what Tish told him at Tino's

bahia bay+predators

The search was quick; the only slow part was the computer and he only had to go through a few screens before he found him. The hand clicked the blue link and the top of his head begin to load into the frame. Gordon pulled back on reflex, like it was one of those screamers you got in the email, but he knew it was coming. He couldn't believe how mad he got when he saw her former father, throwing up an involuntary finger. Why was he flipping off a computer screen? He turned away, arm resting on the back of the chair before working up the nerve to look back.

His eyes unfocused, like he was staring at a 3D image in a book, trying to find the one thing that was relevant to him, so he wouldn't have to look at his mug anymore.

Clicking the blue browser on the desktop again, he opened up another window and searched for the latest Bahia Bay maps. He clicked between both, cross referencing the listed address on the profile.

He had the bastard.

He scribbled it down as the knock came; he then smacked the button on the front of the tower and turned back to the door as he stuffed his pocket. 

* * *

Gordon laid musty in a steamy room of his and Lor's making - though the California weather didn't help. This wasn't part of the plan, but Lor was getting antsy about the lack of sex and he wasn't trying to make her think he was deviating from anything. As sweat began to pocket in his neck, he turned, facing Lor. She had fallen asleep, her face cuddled next to her peachy, gentle wrist, a bracelet hanging loose. He pushed a bit of her matted hair to the side, wanting to kiss her.

He sat up.

Slipping out of bed, he slung his shirt over his shoulder as he kicked his shoes out from under the bed, thankful for her carpeting; even if it didn't matter thanks to her pill. More nostalgia; suiting up before leaving the safety and comfort of his new home in the middle of the night to visit a relative stranger. Except there was no anticipation. No excitement. No sense of discovery about the opposite sex. There was no princess in this castle. No Wendy in the grasp of Hook. Just cold nerves. He felt fuckin' reptilian, even with his jacket on.

So why was he doing this?

He looked again to her, projecting memories of the past days and weeks with Lor - memories that still felt warm to the touch. The ups, the downs, the pain, the pleasure, the problems, the hiccups, the quirks, her gifts, her smell, her laugh, her face, her love, her everything...

He felt short of breath.

He'd give her everything

And he'd prove it tonight 

* * *

It was an eggshell green, flat and small piece of crap that looked barely stiched together at the seams. An octagon shaped window had a crack that ran down from one end to the other with moss taking up residence all along the roof in dirty clumps. The cross fencing on the outside door was rusting near a set of numbers that only remained as shadows of the plastic that used to be there. Parts of the mosquito netting hung off in patches as the lawn grew wild into crabgrassy brown spots.

Not far off from some of the homes back in Grand Forks. He didn't know why he paid so much attention to the place or how it looked. Maybe his brain was trying to say 'Look at his home. Hasn't he suffered enough?' - and to that part of his brain, he says no. Besides. What if the fucker had cable? Or some kind of amenity that made living here bearable... what if he had a job lined up already? A good one that would get him out of here in two months. He remembered Lor's old place. Couldn't have earned that on welfare.

He was gonna get his.

Gordon sat on the roof, glowering over the street and neighborhood like a gargoyle, hunched over, but still a goliath. He was more of a protector than Tino ever was.

Then he spotted him, though clearly different, lacking that business casual look he used to have. No car - a long walk home; shabby looking clothes he got out of a donation box - Gordon relished in it. 'This is what you get, this is what you get.' He wished he was an old timey detective, a cigarette smoking man - striking fear in Lor's former father. First, the single dot of an ember glow, then emerging from the darkness in a puff of smoke - but Gordon had his own idea of theatrics, as he made his move down from the roof.

He listened for the foot steps. "I hope your prison stay was comfortable." Gordon announced his presence, sidling up to Lor's father from beside the empty parking space.

"It actually was." Lor's father was unflinching in his response, still keeping his eyes on his home, ignoring Gordon entirely. "Not everybody ends up on the business end of your pervert idea of justice. That's the thing you're gonna have to learn about being an adult, kid: Life doesn't always go as you planned. I mean..." He threw up his free hand, before slapping it back down. "Haven't you done enough?"

Gordon shook his head, nostrils flared. "Maybe you should have asked yourself that two years ago."

Lor's ex-father took the handle to his door. "I don't want to see myself in a court room video again, so..."

Gordon nearly lost his composure. He had to think of something. "No. No cameras. No tricks. Just you and me. Nobody knows I'm even here. If they ask, I'll say I was jumped at a park. You have my word."

With a single digit, he pressed the outside door back in. Turning with slumped shoulders, his eyes down, setting aside his single paper bag of groceries, he finally looked to Gordon. "Is this how you saw it going down?"

Thumb met thumb, his fingers cracked with bravado. It was strange to think that he had spent so long thinking about ways he'd beat up his girlfriends dad. Yet here he was about to make it a reality. "It went something like this." He pretended to reach for something in his coat, near his waist. The old man sidestepped. Gordon paused. He would have had him dead to rights... Gordon revealed nothing. He tipped two fingers from his forehead with a snicker. "You don't look so tough now when you're not flanked by your fifteen headed Cerberus. Or was it sixteen?"

"Seventeen, including the faggot." That was enough for Gordon. Opening the palms of his hands, he stared, rotating them into the orange street lamp light. Everything seemed to be adding up, the powers he had received, his arrival here, the release of Lor's father. His hands closed, nearly bumping invisible gloves together near his solar plexus. His knuckles seemed sharp... heavy.

Ready to knock someone's block off.

He faced her father, fists raised - he had waited for this moment, dreamed of this moment. He had ground down a side of his teeth whenever he thought about this man. He had thought about how when he was older, he'd come back to kick the old mans ass, regardless of his status with Lor. Gordon thought of how he even might give the old man a heart attack.

That was the intention, anyway.

They squared up, circling in the grass. Like the ring bell never went off in his head, Lor's father laid into him - he thought he could take it, his powers giving him new resistances to prevent himself from becoming paste, but as lights flashed, Gordon tumbled into the green mat. He laid for a moment in a drunken stupor, before he fought to raise himself up, staring with wild and glassy eyes at the old man that put him down there.

Gordon took off.

He felt like such a fucking tool. He felt like he wanted to apologize, but he wasn't sure to who. Maybe to Lor. Maybe to his younger self.

It felt like he ran forever into the night, taking shelter inside of what he thought was Funville, the gamiest place on Earth. Instead of kids games, he found two grown men, a white and black one, playing pool, their drinks on the sides, as he took a moment to rest near them.

"Hey man, what's the deal?" Gordon grabbed a pool cue then broke it off on the white one that questioned him, then decked the other one onto the ground.

It's just food, son

"WHAT THE FUCK NIGGER-" His palm hit the back end of the broken stick, as he drove it into his throat. The voice gargled and snarled as more and more blood poured like a recently punctured crate of wine - but his elation and demand for release subsided.

Gordon stood once the man stopped moving.

In a malaise, he wandered through the parking lot, slipping between two trucks, his head felt inflated, top heavy, and everytime he stepped, he felt like he was gonna topple over. He braced against a silver door that was turning a metal orange; almost looking like he was hanging off it, his exhales nearly whistling as he tried to figure out what to do next, spying out a knoll. He tread through some grass before hitting the sidewalk again, as he approached a group of teenagers that broke apart once they saw him. He pulled up his jacket and shirt, splattered with blood, pulling his hands away, they were just as stained.

This was beyond the pale.


	7. Chapter 7 - closing scene

"Home is where the heart is"

But when you have no home, no little place to call your own, you call into question if you even still have one. Or maybe it's locked behind the gated community of your ribcage - no one allowed to see it. Maybe that's why he had to come back here. To show Lor what was inside - so maybe she'd offer all amends in hopes of saving me

Passing the threshold of the barn, Gordon thought back to when he was younger, as he approached something nearer to the rolling hills.

In the yard, there was an ashen grey tree. Even amongst the tallest grass, the bark stood high, but its branches drooped low like hanging moss, touching the stalks like hands reaching - but when that gust would come up over the horizon, it would jump to life, thrashing about - almost as if in anger - with whips strong enough to leave painful welts.

I knew that feeling

The gale had become a real howler. What I thought was the wendigo, as the natives told, delivered a fierce blow. Like a slash across my face.

I went and got the family axe.

I stood firm, brandishing it - as if there was something for it to fear. Or for myself.

I swung it high, then brought it down to the base. Then gasped at what I saw. My knees nestled together, before they buckled completely as I watched it pump and christen the land

It had started to bleed.

Where natures wooden plate sat, he turned away from where he first exhumed the stump in his dreams back to his home. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he knew Lor had found her way out. Lor, unaccustomed to dresses like the one she had been placed in, seemed to stumble in the wind, her hands at her sides trying to push it back down. It was wool white and seemed to drape her in ruffles. It was quite big on her.

Gordon smiled at her.

He just smiled.

He imagined the way she reacted. Lor would awake with a start, as if finally just landing from her falling dream. She would scamper up suddenly at the mouldy feeling beneath her - knowing it wasn't her own bed. Her wide eyes panning across the room filled with drawers and empty book cases. Lor wouldn't second guess that she had been kidnapped, but by whom? Some super villain? Maybe she wouldn't think he had done it, or maybe she'd know it wasn't a coincidence that he had arrived and then she suddenly was plucked up and placed somewhere strange.

He almost started laughing, because he could feel the tears about to start, the ideas of what she would do to him beginning to frolic in his mind.

He hoped he could explain.

She had just asked him his name out there. He appreciated the silence. No screaming, no bargaining. Just a reconfirmation of who he was - one he was happy to give her. He suggested they go back inside, and as they walked, Lor still had some questions, wind still blowing both her hair and his mane; a strand of it meeting the corner of her lip as she spoke.

"Was this your plan all along?"

"Would you believe me if I said no?" He was sheepish. "Spur of the moment kind of thing."

"I thought your family sold this place..."

"We..." The e extended. "Never sold the farm... family just abandoned it."

"What happened then?"

"Dad didn't have many kids. Just me, actually. So when it came to helping around the place it was mostly him. Sometimes me. A hired hand or two every season. Then... he got injured. Something with his hip. He hired a third that year, but the numbers didn't add up. Least..." He looked down to the grass. "That's what I figured out from listening in on my parents. Mom and dad were desperate for a home and any family that could put up with us."

"So why'd you say your family sold it?"

"I thought..." He repeated himself. "It would make me sound like my family was rich. That it would impress you."

"You think I'd only like you because you were rich or something?"

"I don't know, Lor. I was new in town, and I knew Cali's reputation. I was some bumblefuck from god knows where and any reason to get kids to like me was good enough reason to lie."

"But... oh-" She clutched her stomach and collapsed. "I feel... weak..."

"Are you hungry? I got somethin' nice for us inside." He wondered if it was the smell that woke her, as he went to pick her up.

Lor refused his hand. "Wait. What about my medicine?" He didn't have an answer. Or at least one fast enough for her. "What about doctors? Dentists? God, did you even think about this? I need that medicine to be me." She pounded her chest, a move that made him more nervous and worried.

He imagined his teeth falling from his face. "I took what you had already. I could... I could steal what you need." He would have said anything to calm her... he would have done anything.

"Those perscriptions are complicated... but..." She struggled with herself. "Alright. I just wish you would have told me about this and we could have planned this. I could have had another dosage of HRT given to me."

The sadness of the reality of it all laced his voice. "No no... it works better this way... if anything happens... you're the victim in all this."

"I'm tired of being the victim, Gord. If there was blood on your hand... I'd still hold it."

"God you're perfect." He brushed away some hair at the side of her head and gave her a smooch. "Maybe God made you this way... as a test. I think you passed."

Despite his best efforts, Lor wasn't comforted. 

* * *

"Lor, eat."

A slight glare his way.

"If you hate it here so much, why not leave?" Gordon had thought about it as he tore some meat from the pig - one stolen from a neighbouring farm. If she really wanted to go, she could just use her trump card that she had been holding back in reserve. "Y'know you never told me what your powers were." His question no longer implied, as he chewed some gristle.

She was about to start, her hand at the side of her face as she laughed whatever she was thinking off, before turning serious. "Do you ever dream about things that happened to you, but they hadn't happened?" Her hand moved away from her face and hair. "Deja vu. I dreamt of you taking me away in your arms." She turned her chin up and away from him. "I also dreamt of you doing other things - things I tried to prevent... but like a total idiot, I just lied to myself that I could."

Gordon dropped his meat, as he cinched himself up the table, boring a hole through her.

"I can see the future, Gordon." Her eyes met with his. "In my usual dreams... I see horrible things. I report that to the others and they figure out what to do. Not everything I did was an accident. I knew you were following me that one night, and there's a reason I password protected my computer... but I denied my visions for so long - because I never thought you'd be worse than my father."

Her eyes looked like glass, but Gordon cared little, as he would have overturned the table, but instincts told him that he didn't have to go through it to get to her, instead, he flew like a sonic boom over to Lor, already in her face, leaning in close. "How can you fucking say that? I'm not like your father! I never encouraged anybody to rape you back to normal!" He grabbed at her arm rests. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

She tried to stand up to face him, but was blocked back down. "Rape is worse than murder to you!?"

He ate his words, as he physically revolted within himself, letting her free. "When it's you Lor! When it's you!" He slumped midair. "I love you too much..." Despite that, her comment ate away at him. He snatched her hand into his, as trembled with a terrible rage - the kind he felt for Lor's father - making his steps known, with Lor close by as she went willingly. As he made his way through the darkened hallway to the large door frame that rested there, Gordon pulled with a stub, as wood scraped horribly and with a final yank, beaming light poured in - like something radioactive, blinding him momentarily as he stepped aside, he turned to Lor who was trying her best to shield the light, as the interior of the house behind her shone brightly with all the dust and cobwebs; her dress nearly see through.

"If I'm like your father... you can leave, Lor. I'll fly you home, but just know that you won't ever see me again. I can't go back... not after what I did. And you know what I did."

He watched as she stepped out, the wind of the outside giving her the cold shoulder, her dress flapping once again. He had to look away.

"HNH" Lor grunted as Gordon jumped from the door as Lor moved it closed, like she were rolling a boulder back in place. He just used his raised hand above her head, helping her slightly as his palm met the oak. As it clicked shut, Lor turned to him, a rarely seen grimness betraying her eyes. "That's no choice at all."

Quickly, they embraced. "Then stay with me... forever..." His voice was low to the ground as it reverberated like a command. They had kissed before - but nothing like this. Nothing as desperate. The only thing that came close was that kiss on the roof two years ago - but this... this was the game changer. He felt like he could walk to hell and back, and she'd be at his side. She was his, and he was hers. It was like a true pair bonding, or pure symbosis of two people that needed eachother more than they needed sanity or stability in their lives. A declaration that they would never be apart.

Let this be our elegy...

* * *

A stick scraped a dusty box - fire spurned, as lit kindling from old newspapers sparked and burned, he placed it underneath logs that smoked out match made fogs.

He watched the element dance, almost reluctant to stop himself; their futures somewhere in it. He shuttered the tempered glass on it and eventually raised, looking back. Lor was sprawled out for him in that vanilla sun dress, posing like a model, knowing her role in their sexual play. As Gordon gazed beyond her outstretching white sea, there was something inside her that he couldn't explain - a sense of loyalty only she could possess, yet couldn't pinpoint the origin of. As he approached, almost like she had been trained to, she rolled onto her tummy, her dress fwoofing about along with her. His hand ruffled with the hem, applying a claw like grip, before flipping it up. Lor's cock was bent backwards, pressed into the hardwood floor. To Gordon, it looked kind of painful - but he was sure there was a reason for it - but her untanned ass was still inviting, in fact, all of Lor was.

His skeleton hooks pressed to the back of her knee, which ran up her chalky, hairless thigh, tracing up to its destination. "Lorraine..." Her name left him breathless, hanging onto every bit of it, as he massaged his finger into her pucker, causing moans from her like it was her god given pussy. "Waldgrave..." This came out below a whisper while injecting his digit into her warm depths. His finger swirled around as much as it could in her still narrow orifice, feeling the ribbed ridges of her insides while trying to expand her opening for himself, intruding and retracting his pointer like he was aiming at a button that he was too afraid to touch.

As she tightened around him, making it almost impossible for him to get it out again, he could barely keep himself at bay, wanting to rip it out like a bandage and start. Instead, he massaged her lower back. She finally relented with a silent gasp of her hole and a small noise from her throat; his finger now filmy; he knew it was time. He mounted her, his body pressing against hers in a way that it physically told her that there was no escape from here on. His teeth clamped on her ear like a cow tag. "You're mine. Remember that."

She mewled under the teething pressure. "Oh god, I love you." Which was said in more of a plea, as he had bit too long, breaching her tolerance for pain, and she tried to shirk away, but he kept on biting. It was not until she delivered several meek little 'ow's' as well as her shoulder blade pitching into him that he finally let go. That's when he wanted to remind her that there were much worse things to experience.

He forced himself into her. She whined out, but met his thrust with her hips and ass bending back into him, allowing him to get a few good humps in. Then she blindsided him. "Am I a good girl, daddy?" His jaw hung for a moment before he clasped his hand onto the nape of her neck, guiding her back to his face. Lor almost nearly shuddered away at his touch as if on instinct, but eventually complied.

Seeing her fearful yet excited features up close really got him going. "The best..." Starting from her chin, he licked up her face, grazing her lips, nose and part of her eye, then he pushed her away, continuing his ceaseless rutting.

He kissed her back over and over, just below where her hair stopped and where the sun dress started, as he rolled her scalp, creasing it backwards, looking almost like she didn't have hair, before letting it fall back into place. "You like daddies cock deep in your ass, dontchya?"

"Uh huh..." Lor agreed with a nod. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears admitting it. Lor then offered beggings and pleadings for him to stop, but he knew they were false, her voice rising in anticipation of her own relief as well as his release into her bowels. "Daddy stop... daddy get off me... daddy please!" As if he were doing push ups, he fucked Lor like this, and she couldn't help but squeal everytime he came down, nails and fingers flexing as if trying to get away, but he knew that she was doing anything but. No longer needing to be quiet, he yelled with impassioned fury, shouting her name or cursing as he came inside her, becoming a collapsed heap and bottoming out in her as Gordon planted his sweaty head on his forearm which was resting flat on top of her. As both his body and need for her shrunk, he left her as is to let Lor enjoy her earned splendor.

He stood over her, feeling taller and like he had hair in places he never did before, light billowing from between his power stance, a thumb in his belt line. She had cum... cum hard, squirting the floor. It looked like her penis - red and erupting white lava - was trying to leak even more and turn it into a puddle as she understatedly bounced herself up and down as if trying to milk herself further, his seed now pouring from her and joining the rest.

Gordon just told her to clean it up. 

* * *

He sat in a swinging bench that he pressed into the wall of the porch, looking over the four white columns that connected to the over hanging roof, now covered in wood rot that they had become heavily poc marked, as bits and pieces easily became picked at like scabs. One in particular he remembered way back was big and crunchy, almost like a potato chip, except with twiny bits sticking out. If he was younger then, he was sure he would have eaten it, instead, he was sucking down a bottle that came from a case of stolen water he took from two states over, overlooking still dead grass where the satellite used to be, thinking about whether or not the well was stagnant, or even what that meant.

A quaint creak came from the meshed screen door to his immediate right.

"Hi."

"Hi."

There was a dreadfully long and muted moment between them. "I'm sorry I ruined your jacket." His hand went off somewhere in the general direction of the house, as if pointing to it. "I just ruin jackets I like, apparently. I ruin a lot of things."

She slowly sat beside him, her weight not shifting the seat at all under his. "I'm glad you liked it." She seemed demure... a lot more quiet in her acknowledgment. Maybe she was scared of him now but couldn't admit it... she didn't need to be that way. He loved Lor and nothing would change that.

Or maybe she was slowly grasping the situation he had pulled her into...

"Funny thing - even if I did everything right, I never thought of how I'd explain to you that I beat up your dad that night." He sat down his drink before finally looking her way with a squinty, half hearted smirk. "Guess you woulda known anyway."

"You're an idiot." She pecked his face, their hands interlocking, as he squeezed for any support he could find, appreciating it doubly so considering she never liked to hold hands much.

He remembered when his mom and dad would sit in this sometimes as he would play. He remembered when he wanted to sit in it and had to have his dad help him up. He remembered when he was first old enough to sit in it by himself without any help, his legs not long enough to touch the floorboards.

Now he was here

Something about his mom and dad did jog his memory - and he hoped it was still here. He pointed for Lor to sit as he went inside.

Emerging with an old guitar, he presented it to her, before walking down a step, and leaning on a wooden railing in front of her, as she craned her hand up the neck. She gave it a strum, then went to tune one of the chords, her tongue cutely sticking out of the corner of her mouth as some were more taut than others.

"Home... hooooome on the raaaange..."

"Where the deeeeer and the antelope plaaaay"

He didn't care about the song - but he could watch her play all night long

_And I feel fine_

_I feel alright_

_I feel alright_

_I feel alright..._


End file.
